As the state's case against fraud and corruption accused Schabir Shaik draws to a close, the notorious encrypted fax that holds its case together is taking centre stage at the trial in the Durban High Court.

The trial resumed on Monday without the media frenzy it attracted last year.

Judge Hillary Squires commented that there was a feeling of deja vu in the courtroom as KMPG forensic director Johan van der Walt, who last year spent 16 days in the witness box, was back again to show off his "blood hound" skills.

This time he explained that if Shaik did loan R1,2 million to the deputy president as he claims, Jacob Zuma owes him R2,2 million in capital and interest.

Van der Walt's new calculations replaced those he did last year, when he said Zuma would have to use his R3,3 million pension to repay Shaik.

By compounding interest on a monthly basis and then on an annual basis, Van der Walt noted that the total owed comes to less than he thought and, up to November last year, Zuma owed Shaik R2,2 million.

Shaik is accused of paying Zuma R1,2 million for his political influence and of soliciting an annual R500 000 from French arms manufacturer Thomson-CSF to Zuma for protection against the investigation into the arms deal.

Former Scorpions investigator Gerda Ferreira entered the witness box to explain how the National Prosecuting Authority came to know of the encrypted fax, which the state claims records the alleged bribe.

She said she was active in co-ordinating the searches at Thomson-CSF offices in South Africa, Mauritius and France. The process was slow due to "a lot of bureaucracy", but the Scorpions seized several documents, although the fax was not one of them.

Ferreira testified that she came to know of the fax from Susan Delique, who claims she typed and faxed the letter to the company's head office in Paris, under the instructions of her boss, Alain Thetard, in 2000.

When interviewed, Thetard told the Scorpions that he wrote the letter but did not instruct Delique to fax it.

He said it only recorded personal thoughts.

Thetard refused to testify in the trial and is in France. Ferreira said that if he came back to South Africa he would be arrested for perjury and corruption.

The state believes the hearsay evidence on the fax is enough to convict Shaik, but the implications of Ferreira's evidence - that the Scorpions did not have confirmation that the letter was faxed to Thomson-CSF's Paris head office - will surface later this week when legal teams argue the admissibility of the fax.

With ackowledgements to Nivashni Nair and The Natal Witness.