A Thomson executive has told the Durban High Court that the French arms company was well aware that Deputy President Jacob Zuma was Schabir Shaik's friend.

Pierre Moynot continued his evidence this morning after being called as a defence witness by Shaik at his fraud trial last week.

He told the court that Thomson had its sights set on African Defence Systems as early as 1995.

ADS was eventually chosen as a preferred subcontractor in SA's multi-billion rands arms deal. By then, Thomson had acquired the majority shareholding in ADS.

Moynot told the court that Thomson had heard from former president Nelson Mandela's tailor, Yusuf Surtee, that Shaik's Nkobi company was not a suitable black economic empowerment partner to join them in the acquisition of ADS.

Nkobi was first excluded from the deal but later, after Thomson officials had spoken to Zuma, Nkobi was brought back into the fold.

Moynot however said he had had no direct knowledge of exactly how this happened.

Shaik has pleaded not guilty to charges of corruption and fraud, including an allegation that Shaik solicited a bribe for Zuma from Thomson.

The leader of the prosecution, Billy Downer SC, was expected to wrap up his cross-examination of Moynot today.

Shaik was also expected to apologise formally this morning for his outburst at court on Friday, in which he called one of the prosecutors a racist and threatened to "sort him out".

Shaik has privately apologised to advocate Anton Steynberg, but his counsel, Francois van Zyl SC, was expected to put his apology on record today.

Today was also the last day of trial sittings for now. The court was expected to adjourn this afternoon until April 4.

Despite three solid months of evidence, more witnesses are believed to be in line to testify when the trial resumes.

The next defence witness was expected to be Zuma's state legal adviser, Linda Makhathini, whose evidence was expected to deal with a revolving-credit agreement between Shaik and Zuma.

Shaik said it was drafted in 1999, but the state disputes both the date and the document's authenticity.

In court, Shaik has admitted backdating a number of letters and documents. They had to do with a service provider agreement that the state says was a cover for Zuma's bribe.

Shaik said he had been appointed a consultant to Thomson to ensure that they complied with their offset agreements relating to the multibillion-rand arms deal. He added that the backdating had been done only to ensure speedy payment.

With acknowledgements to Estelle Ellis and The Star.