When Schabir Shaik's trial adjourned for the holidays last year, Durban was abuzz with gossip of Prince Harry and his South African girlfriend Chelsea.

Now the British tabloids say Chelsea has kissed someone else, and the titillation around their intimate moments in Umhlanga seems long forgotten.

The law, thank goodness some would say, is not that fickle. Or so exciting. But it is consistent.

So it will be back to the hard benches of the humid courtroom and its moody air conditioner on Monday for Judge Hilary Squires and his assessors. For advocate Billy Downer SC and his team. For advocate Francois van Zyl SC and his client Schabir Shaik.

And it will be back to the witness box for forensic auditor Johan van der Walt - he of the 16 days of giving evidence fame - for more questions. He is expected to be followed by former Scorpion advocate Gerda Ferreira.

There is bound to be the usual bout of confident smiles preceding the resumption of the trial.

The state will call its final witnesses. The legal battles over what documents are admissible and which are not will be fought.

However long this takes, it will most probably determine the length of the rest of the trial.

Shaik says the state misinterpreted the financial relationship between him and deputy president Jacob Zuma. He claims payments he made to Zuma were loans made in friendship. The reason he did not ask for interest, he explained, was that it was contrary to his religious beliefs. It is all set out in a revolving credit agreement, he said. He also denied allegations of fraud, saying that money was mistakenly written off in his company's books but it was later fixed. To allegations that he was involved in soliciting a bribe from French arms company Thomson for Zuma, he said he knew nothing.

Shaik is facing three charges. The first is corruption. The state says that Shaik paid Zuma R1,2-million to further a "general corrupt relationship between them".

The second charge is of fraud. The state says Shaik had more than R1-million written off. This was owed to companies in the Nkobi group by him and vehicles used to make payments to Zuma. The write-off meant it disappeared from Nkobi's books. Shaik said it was a mistake and got his auditors to fix it in subsequent financial years. Van der Walt said it did not matter that it was fixed, it is still a crime. You can fix the amounts, but not the irregularity, the forensic auditor explained.

The third charge, corruption, is bound to trigger the most legal arguments in this part of the trial.

The state says Shaik solicited a bribe from Thomson for Zuma. Zuma agreed to protect Thomson in return. Shaik "knows nothing of the fax". Van Zyl is expected to argue that it is not admissible as an exhibit against his client.

With acknowledgements to Estelle Ellis and The Star.