Judge Hilary Squires, who sentenced Schabir Shaik to 15 years in prison for corruption, says he never found a ”generally corrupt relationship” between the controversial businessman and former deputy president Jacob Zuma.
The Supreme Court of Appeal attributed the phrase to Squires in its judgement upholding Shaik’s corruption and fraud convictions last week.
Squires has written a letter to Business Day pointing out the error.
”If you have never read the judgement delivered in that case, may I suggest that you do so. I can find no such mention of my having made any such comment. If you have already read the judgement, and in it this phrase ‘a generally corrupt relationship,’ occurs I, would be grateful if you would advise me of the page and line number in which the statement appears,” Squires wrote in a report in the Weekender
In his letter Squires says it was not possible during the trial to make any finding on the nature of the relationship between the two men, since Zuma was not on trial.
In his letter Squires attributed the phrase to the prosecution, saying that the court itself never endorsed the state’s characterisation of the Shaik-Zuma relationship.
Meanwhile, the brother of Shaik on Friday confirmed that they would be selling the Nkobi Group’s assets to pay for legal expenses.
Mo Shaik said the assets would include about R38-million that was seized by the Assets Forfeiture Unit.
Schabir Shaik began his 15-year jail sentence on Thursday after being found guilty on fraud and corruption charges. According to reports he was initially imprisoned at Westville Prison before being moved a few hours later to Qalakabusha Prison
in Empangeni.
Mo said the family was considering selling off the Nkobi Group’s assets in order to honour obligations to the state. He added that they would decide on how to distribute the shares among the shareholders and look at making a fresh start after the obligations had been honoured.
”A new company called Corp Africa manages the affairs of the Nkobi Group, but for all intents and purposes, we will be winding the Nkobi Group down,” said Shaik.
Nkobi Holdings was established in 1995 and was initially wholly owned by Shabir Shaik. – Sapa