Businessman Schabir Shaik, Deputy President Jacob Zuma and French arms dealer Alain Thetard had a 20-minute meeting in the president’s official Durban residence in March 2000, which Shaik said was to outline how Thomson-CSF would donate funds to the Jacob Zuma Education Trust.

Fraud and corruption-accused Shaik’s testimony puts a different slant on to Zuma’s official answers in Parliament in March 2003.

When the arms-deal investigations began linking Zuma to possible corrupt deals, former Democratic Alliance MP Raenette Taljaard asked in Parliament whether the deputy president had met Thetard, and if so what had been discussed.

Zuma’s official response was that he “did not meet Thetard on March 11 2000”. Last April, Taljaard tried bringing a parliamentary motion, asking if Zuma wanted to review his statement “in the light of further developments”, but she was forced to withdraw the questions.

Yesterday Shaik recalled how the meeting was rescheduled from Saturday morning to Friday evening as Thetard had to leave for Paris. He said during the brief meeting Zuma outlined the dire position of education, particularly in rural areas around his home town Nkandla.

In the Durban High Court yesterday, Shaik, who has pleaded not guilty to two counts of corruption and one of fraud, denied knowledge of a fax allegedly linking Zuma and himself to a R500 000 annual bribe from Thomson-CSF in exchange for protection during probes into the multibillion-rand arms deal.

The state alleges the meeting, which Thetard’s diary indicates was on March 11 but which Shaik said took place the day before, cemented the details of the alleged bribery.

Shaik said he had brokered the meeting between the deputy president and the French businessman “because he was the ambassador for the trust”. No suggested donation figures were discussed “as this would have been rude”.

“Thetard accepted the request and never indicated (the donation) would be impossible. He was very happy to have met Zuma,” he said.

But Shaik has described the background to the meeting as one of increasing distrust and disrespect for the French company.

In his evidence yesterday, he repeatedly accused Thomson-CSF of reneging on empowerment commitments and sidelining Shaik and his Nkobi Holdings, and cited a host of issues on which the two sides were not seeing eye to eye.

These included securing a workshare agreement for Nkobi regarding the defence contract and protecting his minority interests.

Earlier in the day Shaik blamed his financial management team and external auditors for the R1,2m write-off that was made in the Nkobi books in 1999.

The state alleged the write-off was fraudulent and covered Shaik’s tracks in paying for Zuma’s rural village at Nkandla.

Shaik said he had employed an experienced financial team, including chartered accountant Colin Isaacs as financial director. He had also paid auditors Desai Jedwat and later David Strachan and Taylor to audit his company books, and he had trusted their advice and financial knowledge.

Shaik said that when the fraudulent write-off was identified, he had engaged legal assistance and had attempted to speedily resolve the issue.

He had also never been informed of the tax implications of writing off the money.

With acknowledgement to Nicola Jenvey and Business Day.