A former accountant at Nkobi Holdings on Tuesday told the Durban High Court she resigned when Schabir Shaik's vision of a BEE company changed from transparency to unethical accounting procedures. This allegedly meant the writing-off of loans to ministers as development costs and payments to or on behalf of the Deputy President despite the company's financial woes.

Celia Bester, a state witness in Shaik's fraud and corruption trial, told the court she was excited when she joined Nkobi in 1998 at the prospect of working for a company dedicated to the positive change of South Africa, however she was forced to resign as many "things did not make sense" and were against her principles.

She said the write-off made "everything black and white to me".

According to the state, on February 1999 an amount of R1 282 027,63 was irregularly written off in the Nkobi accounting records under the description of development costs of Prodiba, a company Shaik had formed to bid for the drivers' licence conversion tender. This amount also included an amount that was paid to Zuma. The state claims the write-off was "false, irregular and does not comply with Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (GAAP)".

"I didn't like the write-off. I didn't like this procedure. We were basically writing-off loan agreements which a director should not do. They were unethical. Mr Shaik did not discuss it with me. I think I was excluded because he knew what my reaction would be," Bester said.

Bester, who had first hand knowledge of some of the payments made to Zuma, said in her mind she knew that the payments to ministers were "purely bribe money".

Shaik is accused of soliciting an annual R500 000 bribe to Zuma for protection from investigations into the country's controversial multi-billion rand arms deal.

The state also claims that Shaik paid Zuma for his political influence to secure projects for Nkobi Holdings.

Bester yesterday said she was also very upset that Shaik would take money from the company instead of receiving a formal salary therefore he was not obliged to pay income taxes.

"Every director has to pay his dues as well. He was not paying his portion by doing this," she said.

The state presented Bester's very emotional resignation letter to the court, in which she slams Shaik for not setting a good example.

"The funds being paid to the Ministers should be taxed in their hands as well as your income. If we are not transparent at this level there is no hope for SA. If one is representing the country's leadership one should be setting a good example. It is my belief that if there were more honest and sincere people in leadership the world would be a better place and the majority of people would be cared for and not the minority living in abundant and unnecessary luxury," Bester wrote in the letter.

She told the court yesterday that Shaik was inefficient at running the business on a day-to-day basis. In fact, she found it difficult to believe that Shaik called himself Deputy President Zuma's financial advisor "but he could not even manage his own". State witnesses have testified that Shaik often told people that he was Zuma's financial advisor and had even included this position in his CV.

She told the court she was passionate about accounting and could not work at a place, with "too many grey areas". Furthermore, Shaik allegedly spoke to her in a demeaning manner.

Meanwhile Judge Hillary Squires yesterday ruled against SABC, e.tv, 702 and CapeTalk from broadcasting audio of the trial.

Squires said he did not want to read his 28-page judgement and that the application was dismissed with costs. However, he has allowed the broadcasters to renew their applications to broadcast the closing arguments and the judgment.

With acknowledgements to Nivashi Nair and The Natal Witness.