Former Heath Investigating Unit head Willem Heath will take the stand in the Schabir Shaik fraud and corruption trial in the Durban High Court on Thursday.

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 former chairperson of parliament's Standing Committee on Public Accounts, 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.

On Wednesday 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 Heath unit member.

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 had requested Lubbe and advocate Frank Kahn, SC, the Western Cape attorney-general, to "quickly go through whatever material, particularly that which was furnished to Judge (Willem) Heath by Ms Patricia de Lille MP some time last year".

Maduna said he wanted them to advise him on whether there was anything which would warrant a criminal investigation or "an investigation on such as ought to be conducted by a Special Investigating Unit.

"For this purpose you may wish to interview Ms de Lille and her source/s, among others *1."

Maduna wrote that president Thabo Mbeki 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.

"The president has to make a decision in this regard on Friday, at the latest," wrote Maduna.

He continued by writing that, "If there is any evidence of the commission of any offence in this regard *2, you are urgently requested to immediately take appropriate action against any identifiable person involved no matter their position or rank."

After consulting with "certain interested parties to obtain further information, including Ms De Lille," Lubbe and Kahn responded in writing to Maduna on January 18.

They said an investigation by a Special Investigating Unit was warranted and that they agreed with a standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) report that a "multi-disciplinary team" would be best suited to do this.

Lubbe told the court that at that stage there were issues surrounding the legalities of Heath as head of the unit and that a "change of the head of the unit during investigation might practically hamper the investigation."

They also said that "consideration could be given to appointing another Special investigating Unit under an acting judge who could then be placed in a position to continue with this investigation by reverting to his personal status after the Act is amended."

Lubbe told the court that on January 19 Mbeki announced that the Heath unit would be excluded *3 from the investigation.

On Thursday Heath himself is expected to testify on the issue of his exclusion.

Wednesday's testimony also included that of Abdool Mangerah who told the court about "personal loans " he made to Deputy President Jacob Zuma. Mangerah said the debts were settled by Shaik who regarded the payments as a donation to the African National Congress.

Mangerah testified how he and Zuma worked closely together in the Southern Natal Executive of the African National Congress 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.

Mangerah said the debts were incurred by Zuma in his personal capacity.

He said the sums were mainly small, but in December 1995, Zuma borrowed R100 000.

Mangerah, who owns an import/export company, said Zuma gave him the impression he was under pressure by financial institutions to settle debts.

Zuma promised to pay back the R100 000 in two to three months, but later said he could not honour this agreement.

Mangerah said he "gladly" extended the payment date because "Zuma was my personal friend".

However, by November 1996, payments had dried up, he said.

Zuma then requested a statement of his debts and "not to embarrass him" he and Mangerah agreed to make it look as though the money was owed by the ANC and not Zuma.

The letter containing the statement was to be sent to the ANC office.

"Also not to embarrass him" it was agreed that Mangerah request that provincial treasurer Zweli Mkhize deposit the money into Mangerah's bank account.

This happened in December 1996 and after many discussions he said Zuma instructed Shaik to settle the debt.

Mangerah said he received several post-dated cheques in March 1997, with dates ranging from May 1997 to February 1999.

He said he was disappointed with the cheques because the account was long overdue and he had expected settlement sooner.

He said the cheques which were from Clegton Investments were not always honoured and eventually the Clegton bank account was closed.

Mangerah said he tried to contact Zuma and Shaik but had "no joy".

In June 1998, he wrote to Shaik to say his attorney would handle the account.

In a conversation after that Shaik was very aggressive and "certain threats" were made.

Mangerah said at that stage about R86 000 was still outstanding and his lawyer wanted to have Clegton liquidated for not honouring payments.

He then tried to get Zuma to sign an acknowledgement of debt "because he was the one who borrowed the money from my company".

But this did not happen and Shaik undertook to get the money.

Zuma was not charged interest on the loan, as it went against Mangerah's principles as a Muslim.

He said all he wanted in return were "only prayers for my good health".

Defence advocate Francois van Zyl referred to Mangerah's initial statement in which he said Zuma was liberal with his money, giving freely to people in need of whom there were many as "at that stage the province was on fire".

He also said Zuma was involved in sensitive discussions in the peace process in KZN, travelled extensively and had many bodyguards.

He said that Zuma himself paid for many ANC-related expenses.

Van Zyl asked him if Zuma had told him that he might get help from the ANC in settling the debt with Mangerah.

Van Zyl said that according to Shaik, Zuma had borrowed the money in his personal capacity and used it for ANC purposes.

He said when Shaik undertook to pay Mangerah, he regarded it as a contribution to the ANC.

"Mine was not a contribution," said Mangerah.

He received a final cheque for the outstanding amount, but the balance of about R4 000 was never paid, he said.

With acknowledgement to Wendy Jasson da Costa and Sapa.

*1 Which they had done, although not at midnight, nor maybe not even in the next four days - seeing that the unit was based in East London and there's a flight out of there only every other week (but they do serve a mean shrimp salad at the Beacon Bay Hotel).

*2 Which there was.

*3 Just what the doctor (honoris causa *4) wanted.

*4 Rand Afrikaans University, 17 September 1999 *5 Glasgow Caledonian University, 19 May 2000 *6 University of Stellenbosch, 20 February 2004 *7

*5 The same month that the Cabinet approved the Affordability Study of the Arms Deal.

*6 The same month I got interviewed by the Heath Unit concerning irregularities in the Arms Deal.

*7 The same month that the DoD and Armscor took my damages claim on exception to the Pretoria High Court and am still awaiting the judgment.