Nervous Shaik takes the stand

2005-02-21 13:10

Durban - A nervous-looking Schabir Shaik finally went into the witness box in the Durban High Court on Monday to state his defence against fraud and corruption charges.

Shaik, who constantly played with his glasses, was offered a chair by Judge Hillary Squires because he had been "unwell" previously.

He started his testimony by saying he was 48 and happily married.

Defence advocate Francois van Zyl asked Shaik about his relationship with deputy president Jacob Zuma, whose name has been linked to Shaik and the charges throughout the trial.

Shaik said "the bond of our relationship" and "the bond of our solidarity" started in the years of struggle against apartheid. He said his brother Mo had introduced him and Zuma in London. At that stage his brothers Yunis and Chippy were involved in the struggle.

Shaik explained how he became involved in the ANC and his career as an instrument technician; how his father suffered a heart attack after his brothers were detained without trial under security laws.

That was an important juncture in his life and career because it led him to quit his job at the Peninsula Technikon and return home to his father's business in Durban.

At that stage Zuma was responsible for ANC intelligence especially outside the country and a decision made by Zuma led to the detention of his brothers.

False passports

Shaik told the court how he and Mo left the country several times on false passports and how he assisted the ANC in transferring funds received from donors between London and South Africa.

After the ANC was unbanned in 1990 his relationship with Zuma was still very close because of the level of information which had passed between them.

"We literally placed our lives in Zuma's hands," he said.

Between 1990 and 1994 the Shaik and Zuma families were very close. They met often and their relationship "solidified" further.

Shaik, who was accompanied by his brothers Mo, Yunis and Chippy on Monday, said that Zuma had recommended him to the ANC's former treasurer general Thomas Nkobi when the organisation was looking for volunteers at their headquarters, Shell House, in Johannesburg in 1990.

In 1994 he often assisted Zuma with transport, while his family also extended financial support to Zuma. He said the ANC at that stage had many returning exiles, often with no homes or bank accounts.

His first duty while working with Nkobi was to work out whether the ANC had the means to bring back all the exiles "with their secondhand fridges" and furniture.

The second phase of his assistance was to travel with Nkobi to Malaysia. There they had to thank the Malaysian ruling party on behalf of Nelson Mandela, president of the ANC at the time.

The trip was in recognition of a "sizeable contribution to the ANC" and Nkobi also wanted to study the empowerment model the Malaysian ruling party had set up and to see whether it would fit in with his vision for South Africa.

- SAPA