R30 000 to keep Zuma smiling

2005-12-04 23:02

Elise-Marie Tancred

Cape Town - A beautiful young woman was allegedly paid thousands of rand by fraudster Schabir Shaik to "take care of" and "entertain" former deputy president Jacob Zuma.

The young women, known as Robin, was apparently paid R30 000 a month for her services - not only to Zuma, but also Shaik and his business partners from time to time.

However, her main task was to take care of the former South African deputy president.

This came to light in testimony by Schabir Shaik-Ibrahim, at the time managing director of Nkobi Tech Transport Systems, given to the Scorpions in October 2003 as part of the unit's investigation into the multibillion-rand arms deal.

A transcription of Ibrahim's spoken testimony is in Rapport's possession.

Zuma was, according to the testimony, regularly "entertained" by the young woman, who also acted at times as a liaison officer for Shaik's company, Nkobi Holdings.

Acted as liaison officer

Ibrahim, who is in Indonesia, said he had seen the young woman at Schaik's company only a couple of times.

She could not be reached as she was now living in the Netherlands with her husband and child.

"At the time it was said that she studied overseas and from time to time acted as a liaison officer for Nkobi Holdings," Ibrahim testified.

Ibrahim said Shaik often talked to Zuma in his presence via a loudspeaker phone and even boasted about the young woman's services at times.

Ibrahim said the woman collected cheques of between R20 000 and R30 000 from the office.

According to Schaik, the money was "loans" to her.

Ibrahim said: "I don't believe those were loans - the money was never paid back."

He said Shaik's secretaries, Bianca Singh and Candice Goodwood, knew "Robin" well. Shaik's financial director, Colin Isaacs, also knew about her.

Neither Singh, nor Isaacs wanted to comment.

- Rapport