Bianca Singh met Shaik in 1996 when she went out for pizza at a Durban beachfront restaurant with her boyfriend and some friends.

She had matriculated the previous year and had no job at the time.

Singh said Shaik approached her in the restaurant and gave her his business card.

"He said I could contact him if I needed a job. He didn't know anyone in our party," she testified on Monday.

Singh went to Nkobi Holdings' office for a job interview and Shaik appointed her as a secretary on June 6, 1996.

She said she had "no qualifications - only matric".

She became Shaik's personal assistant in 1998. He apparently wanted to train her as a project manager at Nkobi and promised that she would see the world.

"We had an intimate relationship. He said our relationship would be the same as the one he had with the ministers."

Singh left Nkobi in May 1999 because she "got to a point where I could no longer work for him [Shaik]".

Shaik humiliated her in front of clients and yelled at her. In 2000, she returned to Nkobi after Shaik asked her to and promised to treat her better.

After the alleged Mauritius incident in November 2000, Singh resigned again and decided "never to return".

With acknowledgement to The Natal Witness.