It did not matter which of Deputy President Jacob Zuma's debtors was to be paid with an alleged French bribe, the fact remained that the money had found its way to Zuma through his financial adviser, Schabir Shaik.

On this point forensic auditor Johan van der Walt could not be shaken yesterday.

There was an aura of anticipation in the air as he took the stand in Shaik's Durban High Court trial.

In general tempers, however, seemed a bit frayed from early in the morning. Shaik swore at a policeman who barred him from parking in front of the court.

But once Judge Hilary Squires entered the court it was at their professional, and sometimes icy, best that Shaik's counsel, Francois van Zyl SC, and Van der Walt squared up.

Van Zyl centred his attack around an allegation that Van der Walt had been influenced by the Prosecuting Authority in coming to the final conclusions in his report.

Van Zyl said he was, so to speak, "painting by the numbers provided by the National Prosecuting Authority".

"I deny that," KPMG director Van der Walt said.

He told the court he led a team of between three and eight members, including three chartered accountants, in the investigation, but denied that they were influenced by the advanced stage of the Scorpions' own probe.

"If my team were influenced I still have a professional duty to come to my own conclusions. The manner in which I controlled this assignment would have stopped anybody from forming unjustified opinions."

The rest of the day Van Zyl focused on Van der Walt's evidence about Zuma's Nkandla homestead development. Shaik has pleaded not guilty to two charges of corruption and a third of fraud. One of the corruption charges relates to R1.2 million in payments allegedly made to Zuma as part of what the State has described as a "general corrupt relationship".

The other is an allegation that Shaik had solicited a bribe of R1m from French arms company Thint for Zuma.

The charge sheet Van Zyl claimed had been used by Van der Walt to tailor his evidence, stated that there was a close link between the first instalment of the French bribe which was R250 000, the payment for the Nkandla development and a charitable trust called Development Africa, founded by Durban businessman Vivien Reddy.

In his report, Van der Walt said he followed the first R250 000 instalment of the alleged bribe, paid to a Nkobi company called Kobitech by Thint in terms of a "service agreement" to the account of Development Africa. He concluded that the money for the Nkandla development was then paid by Reddy, who was in charge of Development Africa.

Van der Walt also explained in his report how he followed R2m paid by former president Nelson Mandela to Zuma, up to where R900 000 of it was used to reduce Nkobi's overdraft.

Van Zyl said his client would testify, if need be, that he did not know that this money had been destined for traditional leaders, but when he discovered that this was the case he had made arrangements for it to be repaid.

The trial continues.

With acknowledgements to Estelle Ellis and the Cape Argus.