'I'll sort you out'

The heat has finally got to Durban businessman Schabir Shaik.

In the High Court yesterday he showed signs of cracking as he threatened one of the prosecutors, saying: "I am not scared of you. I will sort you out after the trial. You are a racist . . . Your time is over. Get that into your thick skull. You will be running from me like Bulelani (Ngcuka)."

For nine days, while under cross-examination in connection with charges of fraud and corruption relating to the multibillion-rand arms deal, Shaik was mostly calm, collected and focused. At the end of day nine he looked tired. At the start of day 10 he lost his temper.

Contact

Just before court started yesterday morning, Shaik was talking to Johan du Plooy, the lead investigator in his case. Shaik's counsel Francois van Zyl SC said the conversation was about attempts by the Scorpions to make direct contact with the employees of the Nkobi group of companies.

Unbeknown to Shaik, the issue had already been sorted out between the legal teams.

When one of the members of the prosecution's team, advocate Anton Steynberg, mentioned this to Shaik, he responded with his furious outburst.

Shaik was whisked from court by Van Zyl, who tried to calm him down in the corridor outside court.

As court started for the day, the leader of the prosecution's team, Billy Downer SC, said they wished to apply for Shaik's bail conditions to be amended to include that he shall not "threaten, swear at or insult members of the State's team".

Judge Hilary Squires asked Downer to bring a formal application and to give Shaik an opportunity to answer.

Downer said they found Shaik's conduct "unacceptable".

Van Zyl explained that the "unfortunate incident" was triggered by Shaik's unhappiness about the Scorpions' contact with Nkobi employees. He said Shaik had been told the problem with Nkobi employees had been solved. When the court adjourned for the weekend, Shaik apologised for his outburst.

When calm returned to Court A, Van Zyl called Pierre Moynot, from French arms company Thomson, to the stand.

Moynot told the court that defence contracts, by nature, were highly political and as such they believed that having information and influence in the corridors of power gave them the edge over their competitors.

"The decision is always made by politicians," he said.

Moynot told the court one of their sources was Yusuf Surtee, codenamed the tailor, whom they regarded as being close to Mandela. Moynot identified a number of documents containing notes he took from what Surtee told him.

"In hindsight, it was all stories in his mind," Moynot told the court.

While explaining how he had to double check information from all sources, Squires remarked: "The CIA has the same problem."

Thomson had received intelligence from an early stage that African Defence Systems was going to be an important player in the South African Defence Industry.

He added that Shaik had been pivotal in introducing them to the right people in this regard. He said they were considering buying equity in ADS, which eventually won one of the major sub-contracts in South Africa's multibillion-rand arms deal.

He explained, however, that at one stage before they bought 50% in ADS, they received information that they had made "a bad choice" in choosing Nkobi as a black economic empowerment partner because neither former president Nelson Mandela nor President Thabo Mbeki had approved of them.

If they bought shares in ADS through their South African company, Nkobi would have received indirect shareholding in ADS.

"When we got this information," Moynot said, "we had to be very careful."

He said they then decided to buy the shares through their international company in France while they tried to get more information.

Investigation

"After an investigation we learned that the information was false and we returned the shares (to the South African subsidiary and in effect then also to Nkobi)."

He told the court that when they came to South Africa to sort out the final share agreement, they had already made up their minds. The fact that Deputy President Jacob Zuma made a guest appearance at the meeting, Moynot said, had no part in making them return the shares.

"We had a cup of tea and a chat. After that he left and we just said goodbye." *1

The trial continues.

With acknowledgements to Estelle Ellis and the Saturday Independent.

*1 But longed to meet him face-to-face again, and did meet him again and offer him donations for his trust after hearing encoded declarations from his own mouth and sent secret faxes to Paris and then ran away to Paris and refused to come back and then changed his mind a few times about what really happened and refused to co-operate with the State's investigation, even after getting the same charges dropped in exchange for temporarily admitting the truth, but was finally prepared to assist the Accused by telling my lies.

This is the conduct of Thetard and Moynot - as savory as the garlic dumpling.