Unit advised Mbeki

Former investigating unit head Willem Heath will take the stand in the Schabir Shaik fraud and corruption trial in the Durban High Court today.

This follows two days of testimony relating to Heath's exclusion from investigations into alleged arms deal irregularities.

On Tuesday the leader of the Independent Democrats, Patricia de Lille, and the former chairman of parliament's standing committee on public accounts (Scopa), Gavin Woods, both testified about the Heath unit's exclusion from a probe into alleged irregularities in government's multi-billion rand arms acquisition process.

Yesterday Heath's former second-in-command, advocate Gerhard Visagie, testified about the unit's difficulty in getting a proclamation approved giving it the go-ahead to get an investigation off the ground.

He was followed by advocate Jannie Lubbe, another former member of the unit.

Lubbe told the court about a letter he received from former Justice Minister Penuell Maduna just before midnight on January 16, 2001.

In the letter Maduna confirmed that he wanted Lubbe and advocate Frank Kahn, SC, the Western Cape attorney-general, urgently to advise him if there was anything which would warrant a criminal investigation or "an investigation on such as ought to be conducted by a Special Investigating Unit".

Maduna wrote that President Thabo Mbeki had told him he needed Lubbe and Kahn's assistance to come to a decision about establishing a Special Investigating Unit or to refer the matter to the Heath unit.

Lubbe and Kahn responded on January 18 that an investigation was warranted and that they agreed with a Scopa report that a "multi-disciplinary team" would be best suited to do this.

Lubbe said at that stage there were issues surrounding Heath's position, which might have required a change of head during the investigation.

On January 19 Mbeki announced that the Heath unit would not be part of the probe.

Yesterday's testimony also included that of Abdool Mangerah, who told the court about "personal loans" he made to Deputy President Jacob Zuma. He said the debts were settled by Shaik, who regarded the payments as donations to the ANC.

Mangerah testified how he and Zuma worked closely together in the Southern Natal executive of the ANC in Durban.

Mangerah said that in 1994 Zuma started borrowing money from him regularly and paid him back by means of a stop order, which at times was not honoured.

With ackowledgement to Estelle Ellis and Cape Times.