Schabir Shaik Trial - Trial - Third Charge: Corruption

Third Charge: Corruption

For the second charge of corruption against Shaik, the State proved that Shaik had solicited a bribe from French arms company Thomson for Zuma. Zuma agreed to protect Thomson in return.

As evidence for the charge, Van der Walt said there were clear signs that an "informal corrupt" process was followed, apart from the formal process when South Africa's multibillion-rand arms deal was concluded. Government auditor James Edward van Heerden, who did a special review of the arms acquisition process, also concluded that there were deviations from the accepted arms acquisition practices, with no plausible explanation. He told the court that their conclusions were that there should be a special investigation or forensic audit focusing on the involvement of contractors and subcontractors in the deal.

The most controversial document produced by the State was a fax ostensibly setting out a bribe agreement between Shaik, Zuma, and Alain Thétard regarding the March 2000 meeting and R1 million (USD $154,000) payment to Zuma. Both the handwritten fax and a disk with a typed copy were handed to the Scorpions by Thétard's former secretary, Sue Delique. Her evidence was backed up by forensic computer expert Bennie Labuschagne and handwriting expert Marius Rehder.

Delique told the court that she was asked to type the note and fax it in encrypted form to Paris. After she resigned she told Thomson's auditors at the time, Gary Parker and David Read, about it. She refused to give them the documents. She told the court that she did not fax the agreement to Shaik. In response, Shaik testified that he "had nothing to do with Thomson in 2000".

Parker and Read concluded at the end that she was a disgruntled employee. They found no proof of what she told them in Thomson's financial statements, and then dropped the matter. Shaik admitted that there was a meeting between himself, Thétard, and Zuma. But he said it was about a donation for the Jacob Zuma Education Trust.

Singh told the court that an audibly agitated Shaik had phoned her from the golf course to tell her to tape hearings by the parliamentary standing committee on public accounts when Chippy Shaik was being questioned about the arms deal. She said he told her the next day that they were "focusing on the wrong person". Singh also said that she overheard Shaik calling Zuma the next day. According to her he said: "Hello my brother, Hello JZ. Chippy is under pressure. We really need your help to land this deal." He later asked her to come to Mauritius with him to meet Thétard.

Singh testified that at that meeting Shaik said they had to discuss "damage control." And he said if the Heath Investigation Unit continued to probe the arms deal and if a certain ANC member opened his mouth "they would be in big trouble." Shortly afterwards the alleged bribe agreement was concluded. Van der Walt said he found a great deal of correspondence about the payment of the money and a service provider agreement that Shaik concluded were used to mask the bribe. Only one payment was made of R250,000 (US$38,000); however, nothing was done to enforce the so-called "service provider agreement."

Shaik denied any attempt to bribe Zuma for protection and told the court that he did not know why Thétard wrote the note setting out the bribe agreement. He also testified that what the State thought was correspondence about the bribe was really about the donation to the education trust. Shaik said that the trust was in financial difficulty in 2000 and the donation was urgently required for them to be in a position to give bursaries for the next year. But Gerhardus Pretorius, who managed the Jacob Zuma Education Trust at the time, told the court that nobody ever told him of a significant donation expected from Thomson. Theunis Benemere, involved in the day-to-day administration of the trust, said that "there was always enough money".

Former Judge Willem Heath told the court his unit was confident it would be included in the multi-agency probe into the arms deal. His unit was the most dangerous by far if there was evidence of corruption as it had the power to have the deal cancelled on "public interest" grounds. Heath said he was baffled when Mbeki refused to allow them to investigate. He said "I have no doubt that if objective consideration was applied the President would have no choice but to issue a proclamation". Heath's two former right-hand men, Gerhard Visagie and Jannie Lubbe, echoed his sentiments.

The president of the Independent Democrats, Patricia de Lille, told the court she was handed information by people whose identity she did not disclose. She first asked for a commission of inquiry into the arms deal. When that was refused she asked Mbeki to issue a proclamation to allow the Heath unit to investigate. She said that her "role was to pass on the information and hope and pray that it will be investigated. I was ostracised, but I did it for the people of the country. I wanted to assist government to root out the few bad apples." She was accused by Van Zyl of using the arms deal to attack the ANC, but she retorted that her "attack was on corruption."

Gavin Woods, who headed Parliament's Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa), told the court that they wanted a thorough investigation of the arms deal. It would have included their own investigation as well as one by four agencies including the Heath Special Investigating Unit. He received a letter from Zuma, written in his capacity as leader of government business, saying that government saw no need for the Heath Unit to be involved. At the time, Woods said there was no clarity on what it was the "leader of government business" was supposed to do. Under cross-examination he conceded that the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Auditor-General and the Public Protector also wanted Heath excluded.

Zuma said that when he was asked in Parliament if the revelations at the Shaik trial were a blot on the moral regeneration programme headed by him, he replied, "not at all, I don't look at it that way. Not at all, honourable members."