Dispute over evidence

The former South African boss of French arms company Thom-son, Alain Thetard, gave no fewer than three different explanations when he was confronted with allegations that he bribed Deputy President Jacob Zuma.

This emerged in cross examination today when Shaik's counsel, Francois van Zyl SC, cross-examined former state advocate Gerda Ferreira in the ongoing trial of Durban businessman Schabir Shaik.

Firstly, Thetard told Thom-son's auditors that he received numerous requests for bribes, but just strung along those who asked for them.

To the Scorpions, he said he knew nothing about the allegations and later, when Thomson was trying to solve their problem with the National Prosecuting Authority, he admitted that he had a meeting with Zuma at Zuma's official residence.

"The purpose of this meeting," Thetard said, "was to enhance the credibility of Thomson's Durban operation and only general topics were discussed."

All parties agree that there was a meeting between Shaik, Zuma and Thetard.

Shaik has indicated through his counsel that the meeting dealt with a possible donation to the Jacob Zuma Education Trust.

The state argues on the other hand that the meeting was the place where the bribe agreement was struck.

The documentary proof of the alleged bribe (a handwritten fax) is set to become a major point of legal battle between the defence and the prosecution in the next few days.

Judge Hilary Squires is expected to hear legal argument on the admissibility of the fax within the next few days.

Ferreira yesterday described to Squires how she and her team went looking for the fax.

In what sounded like a political thriller, Ferreira described her hunt for the handwritten fax linking Shaik and Zuma to a million rand bribe agreement.

"At one stage there was a disagreement amongst the members of the team, whether the fax existed at all," she said.

Ferreira, who left the National Prosecuting Authority in 2003, is now employed by Nedbank.

She told the court that she was appointed in November 2000 to investigate possible criminal irregularities in the arms deal *1.

The investigation was later extended to include dealings between Shaik and Zuma, and after they interviewed two auditors from Arthur Anderson turned into a hunt for the handwritten fax.

To wrap up their case, Billy Downer SC, leader of the prosecution, will ask the court to accept the fax as evidence in the case against Shaik.

Van Zyl is expected to argue that the fax constitutes hearsay and cannot be used as evidence against his client.

The State's problems in getting this key piece of evidence entered as evidence is compounded by the fact that Thetard is refusing to come to South Africa.

Ferreira said no copies of the fax showed up during search and seizure operations in France, Mauritius or South Africa.

Ferreira also detailed their efforts to the court in trying to get Thetard to co-operate with them.

She said that after they had first met with Thetard, they discovered that he had been lying to them.

They then had two warrants issued for Thetard's arrest - one for bribery and one for perjury.

Exchanges of lawyers' letters followed.

Ferreira said they agreed not to arrest Thetard for the time that he was in the country to answer their questions.

Their efforts finally came to nothing when Thetard's attorney told them that their client was not willing to give evidence or to come to South Africa.

Then, out of the blue, Ferreira explained, she received a fax containing an explanation *2 of what happened at the meeting between Shaik, Zuma and Thetard on March 11, 2003.

Downer said they are only leading evidence about the explanation to support their case that Thetard was lying about the meeting.

The trial continues.

With acknowledgements to Estelle Ellis and Daily News.

*1 We know of a few of these.

*2 This otherwise inexplicable conduct of Thetard and Thomson-CSF is explained by the fact that unless they provided a plausible explanation for their conduct and consequent allegations to the investigating authorities, Thomson-CSF would be seen by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as proof of Thomson-CSF's contravention of the OECD's Anti-Bribery Convention.

This would lead to Thomson-CSF being disbarred from operating in Europe, but more importantly, the USA. So big business interests convinced Thomson-CSF to co-operate - except this case was one of the devil and the deep blue sea :

The Devil :
perjure oneself;
and incriminate oneself for future legal action

The Deep Blue Sea :
buy a few extra years in the market place before OECD catches up;
and sell one's in-country partners and their political principals down the dirty brown river