Forensic evidence suggests that the African National Congress had shares in Schabir Shaik's Nkobi Holdings, but his defence on Friday rejected this with claims that Shaik's plans to work with the political party fell through.

Defence advocate Francois Van Zyl told the Durban High Court that Shaik toyed with the idea of working with the ANC, but the party did not want to "become involved with Nkobi business" and was never a shareholder in the group of companies.

Last week KMPG forensic director Johan van der Walt testified that documentation on the first shares registered in 1995 contains the names of "B. Shezi" and "Zuma" in brackets with "ANC" noted on the top and "Nominee document" in brackets.

"It cannot be concluded from this document alone that the Zuma referred to in this document is Jacob Zuma. However, in the document that followed the aforementioned, the initials JZ are noted again with a 2,5% interest in Nkobi Holdings. The initials JZ are consistently used in documentation of the Nkobi group to refer to Jacob Zuma," Van der Walt explained.

He went on to say that the term 'Nominee document" is an indication that the shareholding against the names of "S. Shaik", "T. Mthetwa", and "B. Shezi", may not represent the actual shareholding and "that some or a combination of the indicated shareholders was intended to be acting as a nominee or on behalf of the ANC and/or Zuma".

Further documentation such as handwritten notes show that nominee shareholding was considered when Shaik formed the Nkobi group structure.

During cross-examination on Friday Van der Walt maintained that the ANC was closely linked to Nkobi Holdings, and that the political party sent Shaik to Malaysia to research business structures.

He based this claim on a 1994 letter faxed from Renong Berhard, a Malaysian company, to Shaik in his capacity as a "representative of the ANC".

But Van Zyl said the allegation is untrue. His client "played around with the idea" of Nkobi and the ANC working together but "it was finally shelved in 1996".

Van der Walt conceded that he did not investigate the formal tender process for the arms deal.

Van der Walt was tasked by the National Prosecuting Authority to produce a detailed forensic report on Shaik's financial affairs, which could prove that he solicited an annual bribe of R500 000 from French arms company Thomson-CSF to Zuma in return for his influence and protection from investigations into the controversial arms deal.

Van der Walt on Friday told the court that he did not investigate the tender process as it was not part of his mandate and that he did not want to do the job of the auditor-general. Asked if he had any evidence that Zuma, in his personal or official capacity, influenced the tender process, Van der Walt said the deputy president could have been involved in the periphery of the process

With acknowledgements to Nivashni Nair and The Natal Witness.