When he left Durban's High Court this week, feeling "unwell", businessman Schabir Shaik escaped a room filled with growing apprehension.

As Deputy President Jacob Zuma's financial adviser fights from the witness stand, the atmosphere in the court is almost like that of a besieged city waiting for the enemy to arrive.

Then there was Count 3. This is the charge dealing with what the state alleges to be an agreement between Shaik, Zuma and a former South African director of French company Thomson, Alain Thetard, to bribe Zuma in exchange for his protection and support.

When giving evidence on this charge, Shaik this week threw the state's time lines *1 into disarray. Up to now, the chronology presented to court was that Shaik had a meeting with Thetard in Mauritius in October 2000.

They discussed "damage control" which his counsel, Francois van Zyl, had indicated was about the public images of both Shaik's Nkobi group of companies and Thomson.

Shaik's former secretary, Bianca Singh, was present at this meeting. She told the court that the move to have Judge Willem Heath investigate the arms deal was one of the topics of discussion.

Shaik was still giving evidence, in chief on what has now become known as the Mauritius "damage control" meeting *1 when he said, "My partners held the view that the problem of the encrypted fax was Zuma and Shaik's problem. I constantly tried to make them consider it as their problem as well. I had nothing to fear from Judge Heath. It was a normal, rational discussion. I did not say I would be shivering and shaking in my boots."

But according to the evidence presented by the state, the fax only emerged some months later.

This week Shaik told the court that he was "quite enraged, disappointed and shocked" when he read of the existence of the fax in a newspaper article (which would have been years *2 after the "damage control" meeting in Mauritius).

He said he then met the author of the fax, Alain Thetard, to get an explanation, but was unable to do so.

Later meetings with representatives of Thomson also proved fruitless. Subsequent to that, Shaik explained, he was charged with corruption and as Thetard's name appeared on the list of state witnesses, he was unable to communicate further with him.

"I deny that the discussion between Alain Thetard and me and Jacob Zuma dealt with any matter like defence contracts or protection. Nor was there any investigation to this day . . . I was not part of any scheme or plot to bribe the deputy president."

With the sense that Downer was about to start his questions on the bribe charge, court was compelled to adjourn on Friday to give Shaik a chance to recover after he complained of "not feeling well at all".

The week had started brutally for Shaik when he admitted that he had forged most of the qualifications on his CV. He also admitted to falsely stating that he was a "graduate of prestigious universities in Europe and the United States", a qualified engineer and a published author. He explained that he always felt left behind by his brothers and used his false credentials to promote confidence and impress clients.

But this, the ever-resilient Shaik was quick to point out, did not mean he was a liar. He said he had never been in trouble for not paying tax.

"There is some good in me and some bad," he told Downer during one exchange. He later explained that what he meant was that it was one thing to forge his credentials, but another to cheat the taxman.

Shaik also admitted that he had no idea how much money Zuma owed him at this stage.

Shaik had also admitted that his financial relationship with Zuma, even though it was no secret, was kept confidential on at least two occasions.

In one instance he said that Zuma had insisted on him charging interest, as he would have had to declare "interest-free loans" to parliament. On another, Shaik admitted to not becoming involved in an attempt by former president Nelson Mandela to help Zuma out of his financial crises.

Shaik told the court that he had been concerned that Mandela would not have helped Zuma if he had known of his involvement. Shaik said Mandela had agreed to help Zuma under conditions which Zuma had found unacceptable.

Downer then probed the source of disagreement between Shaik and Mandela, which, according to Shaik, had to do with a dispute about a Malaysian model of economic empowerment called Bumiputera.

One of the main characteristics of this model is for government to be involved in business. Shaik said that Thabo Mbeki, then deputy president, had told him that this would (sic) [not] have gelled with the free-market economy which the post-1994 government had in mind for South Africa.

Downer told the court that he considered this to be a crux of the complex case against Shaik. Downer pointed out that Zuma was bound by the constitution in how he carried out his duties, and both Shaik and Zuma are bound by the laws on corruption. Shaik said he "was not aware" of the content of those two laws.

By Thursday a tired-looking Shaik said, "I have been under a lot of stress and my words are spinning out of context. I am trying to be accurate and I ask for your forgiveness."

The trial continues.

With acknowledgements to Estelle Ellis and the Sunday Tribune.

*1 The True Timeline

The Thetard / Shaik / Zuma Meeting
2000-03-10

The Encrypted Fax
2000-03-17

[The fax gets typed in Pretoria and transmitted to France and therefore now exists]

The  Arthur Anderson (David Read, Gary Parker) / Susan Delique Meeting
2000-04-12

".......she said she had a typed fax confirming the fact that an alleged bribe was going to be paid....to Jacob Zuma.....in order to secure defence contracts"

[Authur Anderson (South Africa) now knows that the fax exists]

The  Arthur Anderson (David Read, Gary Parker) / Alain Thetard Meeting
2000-05-11

"We told him (Thetard) that Sue Delique had alleged that Thomsons was paying bribes in order to secure defence contracts".

"He did, however, say to us that in his line of business they were often approached for bribes and the way the group handled it, is that the local office would send up a fax with the bribe request to the holding company".

[Thetard and Authur Anderson (France) now know that the fax exists]

"Mr Parker (of Arthur Anderson) would be looking for a significant increase in fees. - That is correct".

[It is interesting that after Authur Anderson becomes aware of the fax, that they demand a higher audit fee]

The Mauritius Damage Control Meeting : Alain Thetard / Yann de Jomaron / Shaik / Bianca Singh
2000-11-08.

[Schabir Shaik now knows that the fax exists]

The William  Downer / Susan Delique Phonecall/Meeting

*3   2001-09-24.

[The State now suspects that the fax exists - because they have the typed digital copy]

The Gerda Ferreira / Susan Delique Meeting

*3  2001-10-09.

[The State now knows that the fax exists - because they have both the hand-written paper original and the typed digital copy]

The Mail & Guardian in the report entitled Scorpions Probe Jacob Zuma by Sam Sole

*4   To be precise, on 2002-11-29.

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