Some say that IFP MP Gavin Woods has been waiting for five years to speak about the arms deal. Yesterday he broke the silence.

Woods was called by the State to give evidence in the corruption and fraud trial of businessman Schabir Shaik in the Durban High Court.

Today he was to continue his evidence, which started yesterday with a description of the background to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts' (Scopa) investigation into the arms deal.

Woods said they were very much aware that history showed that malpractice took place in arms deals, mostly because of the clandestine way in which they were concluded

He said he was sometimes asked for bribes

"There was no reason why South Africa had to be different," he said.

Woods said Scopa was concerned that key stages of the arms procurement process had broken down, which opened the door for abuse. He also said there was a conflict of interest between Shaik, who "had an interest in the arms deal", and his brother Chippy, who was the Department of Defence's chief procurement officer and as such "extremely influential".

"We found that we had been misinformed that Chippy Shaik had recused himself (from meetings). According to minutes he remained at meetings and remained influential," Woods said.

The court also heard yesterday that French arms company director Alain Thetard had said many people asked him for bribes, but he considered it "normal practice" to string them along to retain their goodwill.

Thetard is refusing to come to South Africa to give evidence. But the court heard from auditor Gary Parker, who had confronted Thetard over bribery allegations.

A part of his evidence was only admitted provisionally after Shaik's counsel, Francois van Zyl SC, objected, saying it was "double hearsay".

Parker is a chartered accountant who in 2000 worked for Arthur Andersen. He handled the audit of the two South African Thomson companies headed by Thetard.

Thetard's secretary at the time, Sue Delique, claimed that she was asked in March 2000 to type a letter written by Thetard and fax it in encrypted form to Thomson headquarters in France. The letter described an alleged bribe agreement between Thetard, Shaik and Zuma.

Shaik admitted that the three of them had a meeting, but is expected to testify that it was about a donation to the Jacob Zuma Education Trust.

When Delique left the company she told the court that she accidentally took the handwritten letter Thetard had given her, and a disk with a typed copy of the fax, with her. She later told Parker and his colleague David Green about it.

She told them that Thetard had paid bribes to a senior government official for defence contracts, Parker said.

"She did not hand us anything. She had an A4 envelope with her and said the letter was in there," he explained.

Parker, in turn, confronted Thetard with Delique's claims.

"He denied it. He said he was sometimes asked for bribes. To maintain the goodwill of those asking him, he would string them along. Head office would then refuse their request. It was a normal practice he undertook," Parker told the court.

Parker explained that they went through the company's books again, looking for possible bribe payments, but could find none.

"Delique was also in a dispute about back pay ... We considered the matter closed. If Delique gave us any supporting evidence, our attitude would have been different," he said.

Van Zyl said Shaik knew nothing about the fax or about Parker's dealings with Delique and Thetard.

The court also heard that Shaik had asked a building contractor, Eric Malengret, if Zuma thought "money grew on trees", but in the end Zuma had paid all the money for his Nkandla traditional development. Malengret was the contractor for the development.

He said he had first quoted Zuma R2.4 million for the development, but promised to cut costs wherever he could. He said he always trusted that he would be paid. "He was the second man in charge of this country. I regarded his credibility as high."

He said his only dealings with Shaik had been at a meeting where Shaik asked where Zuma thought he was going to get the money to pay for the development. "Does he think money grow on trees?" Shaik had asked, according to Malengret.

Malengret said shortly after this, Shaik instructed him to stop building.

"I phoned the deputy (Zuma) to ask if I must stop ... He said I must carry on."

With acknowledgement to Estelle Ellis and the Cape Argus.