Forensic auditor Johan van der Walt completed 16 gruelling days in the witness box in the Schabir Shaik fraud and corruption trial in the Durban High Court on Monday.

"It's over, I'm happy and I'm on to the next one" a relieved looking Van der Walt told journalists as he left the court after being cross-examined by the defence and re-examined by the State.

However, he said he would still be "acting as a consultant" to the State should any other accounting issues be raised and might even be recalled to the witness box if Judge Hillary Squires deemed it necessary.

He said he had worked with a brilliant team and the investigation had "not been a one-man job."

Van der Walt who has worked on several big cases like the Alan Boesak fraud case, was commissioned by the Scorpions to forensically audit the financial affairs of Shaik, his Nkobi group of companies, and Deputy President Jacob Zuma.

Van der Walt was given access to a strongroom of documents for the task, and said he had to wade through 152 000 pages and 50 000 documents.

The documents were eventually scanned into a computer for cross-referencing. He said technology had greatly reduced the investigation time.

"Would you (sic) still be working on it (without computers)", he said.

Charges against Shaik include an alleged attempt to solicit a bribe of R500 000 a year for Zuma in exchange for protection during investigations into irregularities in the multi-billion rand arms deal.

The State says Shaik also gave Zuma R1,2 million to fund his expensive lifestyle and that this was indicative of the "generally corrupt relationship" between the two. The State alleged the money was also an attempt by Shaik to get the deputy president to use his influence to get the Nkobi Group a slice of the arms deal.

The defence has argued that the money given to Zuma was loans and that Shaik knew if Zuma did not have the cash to make the repayments, Shaik would still get the money when Zuma received his government pension which is estimated to be around R3,3 million.

On Monday Van der Walt said the interest on the loan had already risen to more than the value of the loan itself.

Van der Walt said if a revolving loan agreement was taken into account, interest accrued on the loan of R1,2 million had already equalled the capital by June this year. The agreement provides for interest of prime plus two percent. Defence advocate Francois van Zyl said it was against Shaik's principles as a Muslim to accept interest, and that he would donate the money to charity *1.

Van der Walt had calculated interest compounded on a daily basis which the defence called the "worst case scenario."

Van Zyl said interest in the case of Zuma was calculated monthly and capitalised annually.

The State on Monday reiterated that it would challenge the authenticity of the loan agreement.

The court also heard that the Nkobi Group had a charitable trust. Four payments made from this trust were to Zuma and were later claimed as a tax deduction.

On the end of his cross-examination Van Zyl challenged the independence of Van der Walt's forensic audit report saying it was biased in favour of the State.

Van der Walt responded that any other independent investigator would have would have come to the same conclusion.

Van Zyl asked Van der Walt if he was being paid by the State for his report.

Van der Walt replied: "Somebody has to pay me... I'm not contributing towards charity."

The next State witness Celia Bester is expected to give evidence on Tuesday morning. Bester is an accountant who was formerly employed by Shaik's Nkobi group of companies. Prosecutor Billy Downer said Bester would testify about the internal accounting and cash flow policies of the group.

With acknowledgement to Wendy Jasson da Costa and Sapa.

Simplistic Altruism I

*1 In late 2000 Shaik was wimpering to Alain Thetard and Jean-Paul Perrier of Thomson-CSF about the non-payment of the relatively trifling sum of R500 000. Now just three years later, Big Guy is insistent on donating to charity upwards of R14 million (in 2014 or R28 million in 2019) of accumulated irreligious interest.

Simplistic Tribology I

Them wheels, they turn - with a bit of grease.

Tribology

Tribology is the “science and technology of interacting surfaces in relative motion and the practices related thereto”.

It is a multidisciplinary field based on fluids, dynamics, chemistry, heat transfer and stress.

Contacts between participating entities create highly complex reactions that can only be understood by, inter alia, drawing organograms, giving Powerpoint presentations and telling part of Virgil's Aeneid in Greek (actually better sung).

Practical tribology gives rise to lubrication engineering which is the application of the means to mitigate the effects of friction, stress and wear - often achieved by applying vast quantities of a chemical liquid compound of Johnny Walker Blue Label and Coca-Cola down the gullet - sometimes in the company of semi-naked lingerie models.

Alternatively, some say (maybe after too many Blue Labels) that tribology means building and owning a traditional village for one's tribe of wives and children in a rural area somewhere just south of the Mhlatuze River.