Durban businessman Schabir Shaik was sentenced to an effective 15-year jail term for fraud and corruption in the city’s high court on Wednesday.
A number of Shaik’s companies were fined for fraud and corruption.
As Judge Hillary Squires pronounced sentence, Shaik stared ahead. Afterward, he turned to his wife, Zuleikha, kissing her on both cheeks. His brother Mo looked distraught, while his half-brother Salim burst into tears.
Shaik was found guilty last week of fraud and corruption linked to his relationship with Deputy President Jacob Zuma.
Judge Squires sentenced Shaik to 15 years’ imprisonment on each of two counts of corruption, and another three years on one of fraud.
He ordered that the sentences run concurrently.
Judge Squires likened corruption to a ”cancer eating away at the fabric of corporate probity” and said Shaik had ”lost his moral compass”.
The judge said he had taken into account that Shaik and his companies may well be disqualified from tendering for government work in the future.
He also said the accused’s ”struggle credentials” did not merit any special treatment.
Shaik is to seek leave to appeal against his jail term, his lawyer, Francois van Zyl, told the court after sentence was passed.
Van Zyl told Judge Squires he had instructions to appeal against Shaik’s sentence as well as an array of fines imposed on his Nkobi group of companies.
Judge Squires set the date for the hearing at July 26, and extended Shaik’s bail until then.
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi welcomed what he called the ”stiff penalty” imposed on Shaik.
Nkosi said the penalty ”serves the purpose of the trial, which is to serve justice”.
It sends a strong message that the government will not tolerate fraud and corruption.
National Director of Public Prosecutions Vusi Pikoli will study last week’s judgement and he will decide whether any action will be taken against Zuma.
Companies fined
On Wednesday, Judge Squires fined 10 companies in the Nkobi stable to fines varying from R25 000 to R1,4-million each.
Nkobi Holdings was fined R125 000 on a count of corruption and Nkobi Investments to R1-million on the same charge.
Kobifin, Kobitech and Kobitech Transport Systems were fined a total of R1,5-million on one count of corruption, while Kobifin was also fined R1,4-million on a charge of fraud.
Procunsult, Pro Con Africa, Clegton, Floryn Investments and Chartley Investments were each fined R25 000 on a corruption charge, suspended for five years on condition they are not found guilty of an offence involving fraud, corruption or dishonesty during that period.
On the fraud charge, Pro Con Africa, Clegton and Floryn Investments were fined an additional R33 000 each, suspended for the same period and on the same conditions.
On a count of money-laundering, Kobifin and Kobitech were each fined R500 000.
The fines have to be paid by June 30, the judge said.
Lawyer asked for mercy
On Tuesday, Van Zyl called on the court to show ”mercy and compassion” and to impose a lesser sentence than the prescribed minimum on his client’s conviction — ”a punishment to fit the criminal as well as the crime”.
Prosecutor Billy Downer called for a long-term sentence.
Van Zyl argued there were substantial and compelling reasons for the court to impose a lesser sentence on all three counts against Shaik.
At one point during Shaik’s trail, which started last October, proceedings had to be adjourned due to Shaik’s high blood pressure.
Van Zyl said Shaik is a first-time offender, is married without children, comes from a humble background and ”sacrificed a part of his life in working in the struggle” against apartheid.
Van Zyl said the case has been hanging over Shaik’s head since October 2001, when the Scorpions first raided his homes and businesses.
Because of his conviction, Shaik — the director of the Nkobi group of companies, some of which were co-accused in this case — will not even be able to manage any of his companies.
”This is not your classic case of bribery,” said Van Zyl, explaining that the crime committed by Shaik started out as a gesture of friendship to help Zuma out of his debt.
This distinguished Shaik’s case from normal corruption, he said.
In argument in aggravation of sentence, Downer said there was no ”substantial compelling reason” to deviate from the minimum sentences. He said 15 years is a just and lenient sentence, especially in respect of the two corruption charges.
No comment from Ngcuka
The former head of the NPA, Bulelani Ngcuka, on Wednesday refused to comment on the guilty verdict passed on Shaik.
”I am following the advice of my mother-in-law,” said Ngcuka, saying she had told him to keep control of his mouth.
”I will not comment on the case,” he told an Institute of Directors lunch in Johannesburg.
Although the media had received an invitation from the Institute of Directors to the lunch, Ngcuka tried to have them barred from his talk.
”The organisers have put in me in a very difficult position … If I had the foresight to know [the talk] would coincide with what was happening in the country, I would have said no.”
Ngcuka, now the chairperson of empowerment company Amabubesi, was the head of the NPA when Shaik was charged with fraud and corruption in August 2003.
At the time, Ngcuka said although the NPA had ”prima facie” evidence against Zuma, he would not be prosecuted, as it would be impossible to win the case. — Sapa