Evidence of the state's claim of "political connectivity" between fraud and corruption accused Schabir Shaik and Deputy President Jacob Zuma emerged in the Durban High Court on Thursday.

Documents in possession of the court relating to the testimony of Professor John Lennon from Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland, seem to substantiate the state's claim that Zuma paid back the R1.2 million in bribe money from Shaik by flexing his political muscle to Shaik's advantage.

Lennon first came to South Africa in 1998 as part of a British government trade delegation.

He said as head of travel and tourism at his university he was interested in establishing eco-tourism schools in South Africa, one in Mpumalanga and one in KwaZulu-Natal.

The schools were intended to impart tourism-related skills to boost the economy and to ensure the local industry was prepared when huge international hotel chains came to invest in the country.

Lennon and his team of researchers had already embarked on huge projects in Europe and the South Pacific. Before coming to South Africa he and his team had already done research on the country and had worked with an Associate company in London.

He gave a presentation in Johannesburg which Zuma was supposed to attend although he did not know if Zuma was there.

At the end of the presentation Shaik, like many others, came up to him expressing support for the project and handed him his business card.

During cross-examination the defence said it was not Shaik but Nkobi's agent Deva Ponnoosami who had been at the meeting and that Shaik's business card could have been stapled to the brochure which he gave to Lennon.

Lennon told the court Zuma was said to be very excited about the project and he had a meeting with him at his office in Durban.

At that time Zuma was the MEC for economic affairs and tourism. He said it was difficult to set up the meeting with Zuma but he was "very keen on the idea" and gave Lennon an oral pledge of £25,000 for this school.

Zuma said he would give Lennon a letter of support. Lennon returned to the UK and waited for the letter "which took a long time to appear".

Eventually he was asked to send a "model" of what the letter should look like. He said after a few months it was returned to him and introduced Nkobi, Shaik's company as a possible joint venture partner.

He said the document was signed by Zuma and faxed from the Nkobi offices. The letter dated February 4 1999 said Zuma felt that a local partner was required "to assist in understanding local demands".

"I have had discussions with one such company namely Nkobi Holdings, head-quartered in Durban. They are keen to participate in this venture as it fits in well with their own leisure plans."

Van Zyl said the letter was faxed from the Nkobi offices because Shaik wanted to call Zuma and get his support and signature for the letters.

He said Zuma asked him what Lennon's contact details were because he wanted to fax the letter.

Shaik then said he would send Martin Surman, head of development at Nkobi, to Zuma's office and that they would fax it from Nkobi.

Lennon said it was unusual as they already had local partners in place and they still had to make a case for the project.

"The correspondence did not fill me with confidence," he said.

Lennon said he then received a letter from Surmun saying he had been asked by Shaik "to affirm our company's interest in participating in with you in a joint venture partner" and that Lennon should call Shaik to tell him how Nkobi Holdings would make a positive contribution to the initiative.

In reply, Lennon had written that there was still in the planning stage and that he would speak to his South African partners about Nkobi's role.

Lennon received another letter from Surman saying that Shaik "finds your response insulting to say the least and that he considers that it lacks the business ethics it deserves.

"It goes on to say 'having once obtained the support letters for you he now finds himself marginalised to deal with your so-called agents in South Africa, namely Lorimer Environmental Consultants".

The letters said Shaik wanted to know why the 'consultants' were not able to assist Shaik in the first place.

Further down in the letter it says: "Mr Shaik has asked me to advise you that he is prepared to give you three days in order to come back to him sketching out the issues referred to above, failing which he will go back to Minister Zuma.

"Describing the letter from Shaik as 'unfortunately worded', defence advocate Francois van Zyl said one of the reasons Shaik was upset and felt marginalised was because the Nkobi group had a history of being excluded from another project. Lennon said at that stage it was still too early to talk about partners as they were still doing feasibility studies.

Lennon said he found this "unusual and irregular" and it suggested "a degree of influence over Zuma".

"I just didn't have time to jump for something like this."

He said while there seemed to be much support for the idea of a school, and despite the hard work and presentation by his partners in South Africa, they failed to get anywhere with the project.

He said the Mpumalanga project had also failed to materialise.

On August 24 1999 Lennon's partner from the ASG consulting group in London received a letter from the British council about their British investment in South Africa scheme in which their application for a feasibility study grant had been turned down.

Van Zyl said flowing from discussions between Lennon and Ponnoosami he believed he would be the BEE partner.

He said Shaik would tell the court the fact that the project did not go ahead had nothing to do with him. Lennon who jetted into the country on Thursday morning spent less than four hours in the witness box.

On leaving the court he said that his experiences with the Nkobi group had not tainted his view of South Africa and he would be delighted if other parties were interested in pursuing the project.

With acknowledgements to Sapa and the Sunday Times.