Jailed businessman Schabir Shaik is desperately trying to find grounds to challenge his corruption conviction and sentence through the Constitutional Court (Concourt), reported the Weekender on Saturday.
Shaik has until November 27 to file a challenge with the Concourt against the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) judgement on November 6, which upheld his conviction and 15-year-sentence for corruption and fraud. Shaik has started serving his sentence.
He is also frantically searching for new counsel including a constitutional law expert to lead the challenge, said the newspaper. Nirmal Singh SC is expected to lead the team.
If Shaik is granted the right to go before the Concourt, his lawyers are expected to argue that the SCA went beyond its purview when it found an ”overriding corrupt relationship” between Shaik and African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma, said the newspaper.
The legal team had no opportunity to argue against this during the appeal, they will say.
They will also argue that both the SCA and the trial court erred in characterising the financial exchanges between Shaik and Zuma as corrupt.
They will argue that senior ANC officials relied on businesspeople to bankroll them after their return from exile, and that these relationships were based on the notion of ”reciprocal altruism” rather than corruption.
”Our law does not have the language to deal with the reality of the transitional period. Regrettably we couldn’t bring this to bear on the consciousness of the [trial] court,” said Shaik’s brother, Mo.
Mo Shaik said the SCA changed the legal grounds for the admissibility of the infamous encrypted fax, which Shaik’s legal team had no opportunity to argue against.
Reading the judgement in Bloemfontein last week, SCA Judge President Craig Howie said there were also no grounds to change Shaik’s effective prison sentence of 15 years.
Shaik was convicted at the Durban High Court in July last year. Judge Hilary Squires sentenced him to 15 years in prison on each of two corruption counts, and another three years for fraud. The sentences were to run concurrently.
On September 26, the SCA reserved judgement on the appeal. The next day, the court also reserved judgement in a civil appeal against an asset forfeiture order of about R34-million.
Shaik did not attend the proceedings in Bloemfontein.
Analysts said the judgement might make or break former deputy president Jacob Zuma’s chances of becoming president
Also last week, the brother of Shaik confirmed that they would be selling the Nkobi Group’s assets to pay for legal expenses, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported.
Mo Shaik said the assets would include about R38-million that was seized by the Assets Forfeiture Unit.
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. — Sapa