Despite being considered high risk, his position and his colour secured Deputy President Jacob Zuma acceptance at Absa Private Bank, the Durban High Court learnt on Thursday.

This emerged in the fraud and corruption trial of Durban businessman Schabir Shaik.

Despite also being considered high risk, Shaik was accepted as a client because of his relationship with Zuma and because as Zuma's financial adviser he had power of attorney over all Zuma's money matters.

This was the testimony of Absa Private Bank's John Dwyer.

Absa Private Bank only deals with select clients with millions in assets.

Dwyer said the bank had to accept both of them, because if either was rebuffed it could have had negative implications for Absa, which manages several government accounts.

This was the most dramatic testimony on Thursday, when five witnesses were called, impressing Judge Hillary Squires.

Dwyer said the "clinching factor" for accepting Zuma was the fact that according to his application form he was to receive a R5 million pension pay-out in 2004, which the bank could manage.

Documents showed that Zuma and Shaik abused their overdraft facilities and at one stage, Zuma exceeded his overdraft limit two days after his salary cheque was deposited into his account.

Dwyer sent him a letter advising him to control his finances or issued cheques would be seized.

Private banker Brenda Margwick testified that Shaik helped her recruit Zuma as a client.

Absa business banker Nelia van Coller testified that there were no entries or transactions in the men's accounts to indicate that there was a R2 million revolving loan agreement - which would have appeared in Zuma's as a liability and in Shaik's as an asset.

Shaik's defence contend that this loan agreement proves that the payments to Zuma were not a bribe.

Earlier, Senior Superintendent Marius Rehder, a police handwriting expert, testified that the encrypted fax that records the alleged bribe agreement between French arms manufacturing company Thomson-CSF and Zuma was written by Thomson-CSF boss Alain Thetard.

Before he took the stand, defence advocate Francois van Zyl said that although Shaik does not know the details of the fax, he does not dispute that Thetard wrote it.

The fax was presented to court when Thetard's former secretary Susan Delique testified.

She said Thetard wrote the letter and asked her to type it and fax it to the company's offices in Paris and Mauritius.

Thetard has admitted that he wrote the letter but says he did not ask Delique to type or fax it. He claims he crumpled it and threw it in his dustbin.

The state hopes that the fax together with a "service provider agreement" will prove that Shaik solicited an annual R500 000 bribe from Thomson-CSF to Zuma in exchange for protection against investigations into the arms deal.

Rehder also said a handwritten note - "conflict with intentions" - in the margin of the service provider agreement might be in Shaik's writing, but he could not be certain because the phrase was too short.

Van Zyl said Shaik is prepared to admit he wrote the words, but at this stage cannot confirm it.

on Thursday's last witness was Bankfin regional manager Anthony Lochner, who testified about a vehicle financed for Zuma's former wife, Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

Lochner said payments were not being made and the bank wanted to repossess the car, but he stepped in, "given the nature of the person" they were dealing with.

Lochner said he received a call from Shaik, who told him he would pay the arrears.

After the bank did in fact take possession, Lochner received a R14 000 cheque from Shaik. A second R14 000 cheque was "received but not met".

With acknowledgements to Nivashni Nair, Sapa and The Natal Witness.