Scorpions grill Shaik

2003-07-29 20:50

Johannesburg - Scorpions investigators interviewed Durban businessman Schabir Shaik for almost seven hours on Tuesday regarding his alleged involvement in a reported R500 000 bribe from a French arms firm.

"The interview went well," Scorpions spokesperson Sipho Ngwema said in a statement.

"This will assist in the conclusion of the investigation into the national drivers licence contract as soon as possible."

The meeting, which was held at the Scorpions' regional offices in Durban, started at 09:30 and ended at 16:25. There was a 30 minute break.

Shaik is personal financial adviser to Deputy President Jacob Zuma, who is alleged to have solicited a bribe from a company that benefited from South Africa's multibillion rand arms deal.

The deputy president himself has been asked to provide the Scorpions with answers, by Thursday this week, to a series of questions relating to his personal finances.

Shaik initially challenged the constitutionality of the Scorpions' summons for him to submit to questioning, but the Durban High Court ruled against him.

Shaik was a director of Nkobi Holdings, African Defence Systems and Thomson CSF, all of which benefited from the arms deal.

He is also the chief executive of Nkobi Holdings and a director of Nkobi Investments.

Nkobi Investments is part of the N3 Toll Road Consortium, which was awarded a R2.5bn tender to upgrade the road from Johannesburg to Durban by the Department of Transport. This took place when Mac Maharaj was the minister.

An Nkobi Holdings subsidiary, Kobitech, is part of the consortium Prodiba, which won a R265m contract to produce new credit card driver's licences.

Maharaj and his wife allegedly received payments and gifts worth more than R500 000 from Shaik.

Most of the payments and gifts were allegedly given to the couple before Maharaj left the Cabinet in 1999, but none of the gifts or payments were logged in Maharaj's parliamentary register of members' interests.

The Sunday Times, which broke the story, reported that documents scrutinised by its staff suggested that six payments totalling R260 000 were made to Maharaj and his wife in the four months after he announced N3 Toll Road Consortium as the preferred bidder.

- SAPA