Prominent businessman Schabir Shaik, currently on trial for fraud and corruption in the Durban High Court, cheated in an exam while a student at the former M L Sultan Technikon in 1990, according to several well-placed sources.

Three documents in the possession of DITonline note that Shaik, who studied electrical engineering at M L Sultan, was caught cheating in a T5 High Voltage Engineering exam on May 28, 1990.

M L Sultan Technikon and Natal Technikon merged to form the Durban Institute of Technology (DIT) in 2002.

All three documents had the names of the education officials, who are known to DITonline, removed and replaced with symbols to protect their identities. In summary, the documents allege that Shaik was caught cheating twice during the exam.

In the first incident, he was allegedly caught copying answers from crib notes, after which his answer book and notes were confiscated.

He was then issued with another answer book, and 10 minutes later was allegedly caught with two other answer books, which were almost full of writing.

The first document, written by an examinations controller and addressed to the examinations officer on May 29, 1990, and headed "Irregularity during examination", states: "The following was brought to my attention concerning candidate Nr 870107. Mr N, the invigilator during this time, saw the candidate copying answers from pieces of paper."

DIT engineering faculty assistant Neetha Singh confirmed this week that candidate number 870107 was indeed Shaik's old student number, and that his new student number is 18750134, which appears on his academic record.

The first document states: "The matter was reported to me and I advised Mr N to confiscate all the relevant examinations material on the candidate's desk. At 10h50 Mr N then confiscated all documents visible on the candidate's desk and issued him a new book.

"At about 11h00 I was called to the examination venue (Room B5-8). On arriving there Mr N pointed out to me that the candidate was in possession of two other books which was(sic) almost full of writing and that not one of them could have been the book he issued him after confiscating the material on his desk.

"I then called the candidate out of the room and asked him where he got those books from. He said that Mr M, who relieved Mr N at approximately 10h00, issued him with one book after he requested a second book.

"The third book he claimed he found on a desk nearby and took this book without anybody's permission.

"I confiscated the other two books in question, because he wrote in these books before he was caught copying.

"The candidate then followed me to my office and we discussed the matter further. I pointed out to him that it was irregular to hide these books from the invigilator and not hand them in as well when he was caught.

"He then claimed that he wrote everything in those books from 10h50 to 11h00.

"I pointed out to him that it would be impossible to answer almost the whole question paper in 10 minutes and that I cannot believe him, therefore I had to confiscate those books as well. He then pleaded for my goodwill."

The second document referring to the incident and providing similar details is a letter from an invigilator to the chief invigilator, also titled "Irregularity during examination" and dated May 29, 1990. This document also provides a detailed description of the sequence of events which occurred on the day Shaik was caught allegedly cribbing.

The third document, addressed to the dean of engineering from a member of the department of power engineering, urges the dean to take strong action following the incident.

Kiru Naidoo, DIT vice-chancellor Professor Dan Ncayiyana's personal assistant, confirmed the incident. "S Shaik was brought before a disciplinary committee on a charge of exam irregularities and subsequently had a sentence handed down, which was to be barred as a student (from the institution) for 12 months."

Professor Theo Andrew, who is now the executive dean of engineering at Technikon Witwaterstrand, and who was a lecturer in the department at the time, added: "I can confirm there was an incident of exam irregularity regarding Schabir Shaik."

But Shaik has denied that he cheated. After DITonline confronted Shaik with the documents, he said: "This does not pertain to me. This could have been typed by anybody. It's definitely not correct. I can't respond to this. I think it's very unfair and incorrect," added Shaik. "I never performed any irregularities."

But a number of sources, all of whom did not wish to be named for fear of reprisal, were certain the incident took place.

The head of department of electrical power engineering in 1990 confirmed the validity of the documents pertaining to the cheating.

He said that he could confirm that the incident occurred and that Shaik had been suspended following a hearing after the incident.

A former dean of engineering at M L Sultan Technikon said he recalled the incident involving Shaik. "I can recall this hearing did take place. I know about the case," he said.

Shaik's academic record also reveals that he did not receive a Masters diploma in electrical engineering, as the Sunday Times reported two weeks ago.

Shaik confirmed to DITonline that he had not completed his Masters degree.

"I attempted my Masters. I hadn't completed that."

In December 2002, the Mail & Guardian reported that Shaik had resigned as a lecturer from Peninsula Technikon in 1986 after he was questioned about his academic credentials and was unable to furnish the institution with the originals of his qualifications, allegedly obtained from a Hawaiian institution.

The writers are journalism students at DIT. This report appears on: http:// olcweb.dit.ac.za/ditonline

With acknowledgements to Reesha Chibba, Matthew Savides and the City Press.