Independent Democrats president Patricia de Lille and Inkatha Freedom Party MP Gavin Woods told the Schabir Shaik trial yesterday that their involvement in and opposition to SA's R30bn arms acquisition process had left them respectively "ostracised" and "intimidated".

Both politicians once again refused to name the people who had originally tipped them off with allegations of corruption over the period involved, with de Lille saying she would "never, never" reveal this information.

Judge Hillary Squires remained adamant, as he has throughout the trial, that the hearing should not be transformed into an investigation of the arms deal.

But political issues nevertheless were the focus of the day.

However, shortly after the day's hearing, Dominique Ntsele, a spokesman for Shaik, claimed de Lille's source *1 was Bheki Jacobs, and not an African National Congress (ANC) MP as was claimed.

Ntsele said that Jacobs was "discredited" and was "well known in ANC circles as a peddler of untruths and false information about high profile people".

Much of Woods' evidence revolved around a letter he had received from Deputy President Jacob Zuma, and here too, the defence appeared to achieve some significant concessions.

The state is seeking to suggest that Zuma sent the letter to Woods following a bribery conspiracy in which he and Shaik were involved, in which Zuma undertook to provide political protection to French arms company Thales.

The letter consists of a lengthy and angry diatribe against Woods, attacking him both personally and in his capacity as chairman of the select committee on public accounts, which had previously advocated a prove into the arms deal.

Woods described the letter as "sarcastic, rude, contrived and in certain respects untrue".

With acknowledgements to Sapa and Business Day.

*1 If one reads the document entitled Briefing to Honorable Patricia de Lille Member of Parliament (dated early September 1999), anyone who knows anything about anything can see that the content of the document was the contribution of at least three people, from at least three different backgrounds and perspectives.

Anyone who knows anything about the Arms Deal will know that these persons are not Bheki Jacobs, but persons very close to the inner workings of the acquisitions processes current at that time, particularly in the areas of DIP and NIP.

Bheki Jacobs had nothing to do with the acquisitions processes, let alone the inner workings thereof.

I can work out the identities of at least two of the contributors, just from the language and style of information presentation. These two persons are certainly not nor were MPs, ANC or other.

Regarding the third, this is almost certainly one or more ANC MPs. I have a very good idea as to the identity of at least one of these concerned persons.

For the record, I had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with this document and only saw it for the very first time in May or June 2001

- QED.