I'm the victim - broken Shaik
2006-01-31 22:19
Johannesburg - "I'm now the victim in Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma's political fight," said a shattered Schabir Shaik on Tuesday, after Durban High Court ruled that the State was entitled to confiscate assets to the value of R34m from him.
Shaik spoke openly for the first time on Tuesday after a marathon legal process during which he was convicted of corruption and fraud, sentenced to an effective 15 years in prison and has now lost millions of rands in assets.
Judge Hilary Squires, who convicted Shaik on June 2 last year on two charges of corruption and one of fraud, ruled on Tuesday that Shaik's corrupt relationship with Zuma was worth R34m and that the State was entitled to every cent of it.
The judgment also involved the dismissed deputy-president far more closely in the French arms firm Thales's decision to accept Shaik as its empowerment partner after initially kicking out the Nkobi Group.
Squires rejected Shaik's argument that the court had found Zuma's "intervention" to get Shaik back as partner was not illegal, and said Shaik misunderstood his judgment.
Zuma's 'general political status'
He had found in June only that the State could not prove that Zuma had intervened in his capacity as African National Congress deputy president when holding a meeting with the Thales bosses.
Squires proceeded to rule that Shaik, himself, had not distinguished between Zuma's different positions in his payments to Zuma.
"His investment was in the general political status of his client."
Even if the State argued that Shaik bribed the deputy-president of the ANC, it would still be illegal, "especially when taking into account the overwhelming political control that party enjoys over the country's affairs".
Shaik accused Squires of contradicting his previous judgment with Tuesday's judgment.
"First, he (Squires) found Zuma had done nothing wrong by speaking to the French (Thales). Now he changes his decision and finds Zuma guilty!
"The judge also forgets that the French first sought the help of (former president Nelson) Mandela and (President Thabo) Mbeki and only then spoke with Zuma."
Shaik believes he has grounds to lodge an appeal against the asset forfeiture order and will approach the Supreme Court of Appeal soon with an application.
"On a personal level, I now feel like the victim in Mbeki and Zuma's political fight.
'Root out corruption openly'
"Why is there silence about the other contracts in the arms transaction?
"That's not what we fought for. I agree that corruption must be rooted out, but do it openly and transparently."
Shaik repeated the accusations of staunch Zuma supporters such as the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the ANC Youth League and the SA Communist Party, that organs of state were being misused to "eliminate people on Zuma's side".
"My life goes on, but this evil must stop."