For almost a year Jabu Ngcobo was a director of Nkobi Holdings - but he knew nothing about it.

The trade unionist even had his picture taken in Nkobi's boardroom, but he was there only to be introduced to the staff.

His organisation was given 10% of Nkobi's shares, but was told to pay R101 million *1 if it wanted to be part of the company.

This was how the plan to make Workers College a black economic empowerment partner to Schabir Shaik's Nkobi Holdings worked out in the end.

Ngcobo and his colleague, Kessie Moodley, gave evidence at the trial of Shaik yesterday.

Moodley told the court that the only place the black economic empowerment plan took them was to the witness stand.

The two of them were the final witnesses for this year in Shaik's marathon corruption and fraud trial. Shaik has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him.

Ngcobo told the court that he had been chairman of the Workers College since 1996.

He told the court that there were discussions about establishing a link between Nkobi and Workers College.

"At the time the story was that Nkobi will apply for the drivers' licence contract (to convert South African driver's licences into credit card format).

"Workers College was to be there for the black economic empowerment. We discussed it and accepted the offer of 10% shareholding. We were led to believe that it would be 10%. No form of payment was mentioned. I never saw the document," Ngcobo said.

Moodley said he investigated the college's shareholding in Nkobi after a newspaper article linked them with Schabir Shaik's company.

Then he discovered that they owned 10% of the shares in Nkobi.

He then tried to set up a meeting with Shaik. After some correspondence he received a letter from Shaik's attorney, Reeves Parsee.

He then met with Parsee who followed their meeting with a letter that stated that if they wished to continue as shareholders they must pay Nkobi R101m or give a guarantee of R10m.

The trial is to continue on January 31.

With acknowledgements to Estelle Ellis and the Cape Times.

*1 The case of a Donateer prepared to give a crony revolving credit for years and years and years, interest-free, but the Black Previously Deprived (BPD), must pay R101 million for 10%.

On the relative value of things, it's really interesting to note that Thomson-CSF only paid Altech Ltd about R80 million for 100% of ADS, this after ADS was guaranteed by Deputy President Thabo Mbeki the supply contract for the Corvette Combat Suite worth R2,6 billion in 1998 rands (about R5 billion in 2004 rands), nett profit between R0,5 billion and R1,5 billion.

Nkobi Holdings (Pty) Ltd and FBS Holdings (Pty) Ltd each got 20% of the shares of ADS from Thomson-CSF for the bargain price of about R7,5 million. This did not require any payment whatsoever - only that the shares were to be escrowed in an offshore escrow account and to be paid for later out of ADS dividends.