This was the evidence the Durban High Court heard yesterday from chartered accountant Gary Parker, who said he had confronted Thetard over bribe allegations.

Thetard, who has continually been faced with claims that he had agreed to bribe Deputy President Jacob Zuma, is refusing to come to South Africa *1 to give evidence in the corruption and fraud trial of Durban businessman Schabir Shaik.

In 2000 Parker worked for Arthur Andersen and handled the audit of the two South African Thomson companies headed by Thetard.

Thetard's secretary was Sue Delique, who testified that she had been asked to type a letter to Thomson headquarters in France written by Thetard.

The letter, which was faxed in encrypted form to Paris, set out the amounts and conditions of a bribe agreed on at an alleged meeting held between Thetard, Shaik and Zuma.

Shaik said there was a meeting, but denied it was about a bribe. He is expected to testify it was about a donation to the Jacob Zuma Education Trust.

When Delique left the company, she told the court, she accidentally took the handwritten letter Thetard had given her and a disk with a typed copy of the fax with her. She later told Parker and his colleague, David Green, about it.

Parker testified that Delique had said Thetard paid bribes to a senior government official for defence contracts.

"She did not hand us anything. She had an A4 envelope with her and said the letter was in there. She was very scared."

Parker said he then discussed the bribery claims with Thetard. "He denied it. He said he was sometimes asked for bribes. To maintain the goodwill of those asking him, he would string them along. Head office would refuse their request *2.

"We could find no sign of bribe payments. We had nothing tangible. Delique was also in a dispute about back-pay and she looked as if she was slightly aggrieved. We considered the matter closed."

The court also heard that Shaik had asked a building contractor, Eric Malengret, if Zuma thought "money grew on trees".

Malengret was building Zuma's traditional homestead near Nkandla in kwaZulu-Natal. He said he had first quoted the "deputy" - as he referred to Zuma - R2,4-million for the development, but promised to cut costs wherever he could.

Under cross-examination, Malengret said Zuma had paid him everything he owed.

IFP MP Gavin Woods will continue his evidence today after he yesterday detailed the background to an investigation by Parliament's Standing Committee on Public Accounts - which he had chaired - into the arms deal.

He also said there was a conflict of interest between Shaik, who "had an interest in the arms deal", and his brother Chippy, who was the Department of Defence's chief procurement officer and as such "extremely influential".

The trial continues.

With acknowledgements to Estelle Ellis and The Star.

*1   After making a hefty donation in late 2000 of R500 000 per year for two years for bursaries for the Jacob Zuma Education Trust, many, or at least some, of the ultimate beneficiaries of such French generosity would be graduating about now.

Surely the benefactor of such a magnificent gesture in the name of GEAR (Growth, Employment And Redistribution) would want to see the fruits of his donations by attending some of the graduation ceremonies and shouldn't be slightest bit concerned about getting arrested on sight at Johannesburg International Airport.

Or is this more about GEAR (Graft, Enrichment And Retribution)?

Simplistic Cryptography I

*2 This is obviously absolute nonsense. If someone was genuinely stringing a requester along, there would be absolutely no necessity to transmit the request to head office by means of a written communication, albeit encrypted communication, for them just to ignore.

It would be absolutely senseless to potentially compromise oneself by firstly recording and then transmitting such a request, because even if the encrypted telecommunication channel itself was secure, then the human factor on both sides of the channel are always a weak spot (as was the case in this situation).

Also if this French Donateer was so intent on merely stringing requesters along, why did he get so upset about the South African Press and Patricia de Lille MP making a fuss about bribery, as well as saying it was accepted practice back in his home country.