Durban - He believed that Bianca Singh - his former secretary and a main state witness against him - had been told what to say, businessman Schabir Shaik has told his high court trial here on fraud and corruption charges.

Shaik was trying to explain why he had said it was a "confidential matter" that he had paid the rent for a Mallington Place flat in which Deputy President Jacob Zuma had lived here between 1996 and 1999.

Shaik had told the court earlier that Zuma had moved into the apartment because his life was under threat during the IFP-ANC conflict in KwaZulu-Natal.

Asked about the way the payments were accounted for in his company records, he said he had wanted to maintain a sense of confidentiality about where Zuma lived.

Challenging Shaik, lead prosecutor Billy Downer, SC, said Singh and former Nkobi accountant Celia Bester had told the court they knew about Zuma's apartment.

Singh said Shaik would visit Zuma there. Downer noted that Shaik had not instructed his counsel, Francois van Zyl, SC, to dispute this bit of evidence.

"Somebody might have informed her to say that," Shaik shot back. Downer answered that Shaik was only now disputing what Singh said because it suited him to do so.

Shaik acknowledged that more than R1 million had been written off irregularly in his company's books, but he said he had been misled by his auditors.

The trial continues.

With acknowledgements to Estelle Ellis and the Cape Times.