The Schabir Shaik fraud and corruption trial resumed in the Durban High Court on Monday without the hype which signalled the start of the case last October.

Only a handful of people had gathered in the public gallery, including Shaik's bodyguards and only die-hard journalists took their seats in the court room.

Shaik himself only had one of his brothers and his so-called spin doctor Dominic Ntsele supporting him.

Judge Hillary Squires started the case by saying "anyone who feels a sense of dejavu, you are not alone".

Forensic auditor Johan van der Walt, who spent 16 days in the witness box explaining the paper trail which linked Shaik to Deputy President Jacob Zuma, was expected back in the stand on Monday.

Prosecutor Billy Downer was explaining to the court that Van der Walt was recalled to the witness box to clarify some issues which arose in his previous testimony.

This included how the interest on the loan between Shaik and Zuma was calculated and from where the so-called encrypted fax recording attempts by Shaik to solicit a bribe for Zuma from French arms company Thomson CSF was faxed.

The State alleges that Shaik and Zuma had "a generally corrupt relationship" and that Shaik paid Zuma at least R1.2-million in bribes. This was in exchange for protection *1 during investigations into irregularities in the arms deal.

Van der Walt was expected to be followed by former Scorpions investigator Gerda Ferreira.

With acknowledgement to Sapa.

*1 But please explain - why was the protection necessary?

Was there a bit of sensitivity about a few clandestine meetings in Paris?

Or a few circum-navigations of the OECD's *2 Anti-Bribery Convention?

Maybe we shall soon be finding out, but maybe not in Durban.