Cabinet Secretary Frank Chikane may be called to testify by Shaik's defence

Letters allegedly written to cabinet by Deputy President Jacob Zuma informing them of his debts to Schabir Shaik were only penned after Shaik became aware of an investigation into his company and held a secret meeting in Mauritius with directors of the French arms company Thales (Thomson-CSF), the company accused of bribing Zuma.

Last week the Durban High Court was presented with copies of letters from cabinet secretary Frank Chikane that were written to Zuma and confirmed that he had made declarations to cabinet over his liabilities to Shaik for the years 2001 onwards.

However, the loans Shaik made to Zuma began in 1999. And by the end of 2001 Zuma - or at least Shaik - were fully aware they were being probed by the Scorpions.

The secret meeting was, according to testimony in the Shaik trial, held specifically to discuss how to insulate Shaik, Zuma and Thales from the arms deal investigation.

One of the first witnesses for the prosecution, Bianca Singh, testified in October last year that, as Shaik's PA at the time, she accompanied him to the island during November 2000 and brought with her a cuttings file containing stories published on the arms deal in the South African media.

By that time a number of South African journalists had written stories of alleged corruption in the arms deal and the Scorpions had begun to probe the deal and investigate Shaik's finances.

In April 2000 - months before this meeting - Susan Delique, a former employee of Thales, had informed auditors from Arthur Andersen about the now notorious encrypted fax that she had typed. This fax allegedly requested a R500 000 a year bribe for Zuma - partly to protect Thales from investigations into corruption and irregularities in the arms deal.

In October 2001 Advocate Billy Downer SC was already in possession of a copy of Delique's encrypted fax - and applied for a number of search warrants. These warrants were to search homes and offices in South Africa, France, Mauritius and Turkey.

The Witness has obtained information from an impeccable and high-ranking source that initially the Scorpions also wanted search warrants for Zuma's homes and offices, but were blocked from obtaining them by the former head of the National Prosecuting Authority, Bulelani Ngcuka.

Asked to confirm or deny this Downer said: "I cannot possibly comment. You are talking about an internal process that would have been subject to all manner of secrecy provisions. The only person who could release that sort of information would be the head of the Directorate [of Public Prosecutions] through his official spokesman."

Asked to comment, Scorpions and NPA spokesman Makhosini Nkosi said: "I am of the view that it would be improper for the NPA to comment on this matter as it may have a bearing on the ongoing trial".

When these search warrants were served on Shaik and Thales they also obtained copies of Downer's affidavits put forward to obtain the warrants, as well as a copy of the encrypted fax, which was put up as an exhibit in order to obtain the warrants.

But it is possible that copies of the affidavits were in circulation even before the search warrants were obtained. In order to obtain warrants to search premises in France, the Scorpions sent documents and affidavits to Paris in the South African diplomatic bag.

In a mystery that has never been solved, one set of documents disappeared from the bag en route to Paris.

Downer has disputed the Chikane letters. This means that Chikane may have to be called by the defence to explain the contents.

With acknowledgement to the Natal Witness.