An encrypted fax sent in March 2000 by Thomson's southern Africa chairman, Alain Thetard, to his superiors is among the papers accompanying the charge sheet submitted in the Durban Regional Court against Schabi Shaik:

The fax reads: "Following our interview held on 30/9/1999 with S Shaik in Durban and my conversation held on 10/11/1999 with Mr J-P Perrier (another Thomson director) in Paris, I have been able (at last) to meet JZ in Durban on 11th of this month, during a private interview, in the presence of SS.

"I had asked SS to at least obtain from JZ a clear confirmation or, failing which, an encoded declaration (the code had been defined by me), in order to validate the request by SS at the end of September 1999, which was done by JZ (in an encoded form).

"May I remind you that the two main objectives of the 'effort' requested of Thomson-CSF are:

Protection of Thomson-CSF during the current investigations (Sitron).

Permanent support of JZ for the future projects.

Amount: 500 K ZAR per annum ..."

When the Heath Special Investigating Unit was about to get involved in the arms deal probe, Deputy President Jacob Zuma wrote on January 19, 2001 to the then-chairman of the standing committee on public accounts, Gavin Woods, saying:

"We are convinced ... there is no need for the 'Heath Unit' to be involved in any 'investigation' of the defence acquisition. We hope this strange manner of proceeding was not driven by a determination to find the executive guilty at all costs, based on the assumption ... mentioned that the executive is 'prone to corruption and dishonesty'."

Shaik was at court yesterday and promised to tell the full story when his trial began.

With acknowledgement to the Cape Times.