Where is the original loan agreement showing that payments from fraud and corruption accused Schabir Shaik to Jacob Zuma were a loan and not used to buy the deputy president's influence?

Zuma's legal adviser, Julie Mohammed (sic - Mahomed), was the defence's second witness on Thursday who could not answer this question.

Mohammed told the Durban High Court she drew up the loan agreement after Zuma contacted her while she was in Mozambique.

"In 1999 after the elections, Mr Zuma wanted me to draw up a document for him," she said.

She drew up the document on her laptop computer. Zuma asked her to consolidate two acknowledgements of debt in the loan agreement and told her to leave out unnecessary definitions.

Mohammed met Shaik and Zuma in Durban at the Edward Hotel, where she printed the loan agreement and then both men signed it.

The agreement documented a R2 million revolving loan that was to run for five years. Mohammed said Zuma told her the "essential point" of the agreement was an interest rate of prime plus two percent. "When I got to Jo'burg, I left a note for my secretary to make two copies of the agreement. The date was not on the agreement so I think she must have dated it, as it is not in my handwriting."

Mohammed did not see the file containing the document again until recently, when Shaik's attorney, Reeves Parsee, contacted her to obtain the original document.

When she did not find the original in the file, Mohammed said she remembered that she had sent Zuma copies of the document, so she deduced she might have sent the original document by mistake.

She contacted Zuma, who said he would look among his things, but had always assumed she had the original. A few days later, she was told to look "properly" in her office as Zuma did not have the original.

Earlier on Thursday, while facing questions from Judge Hillary Squires on "unclear matters", Shaik initially said the agreement would be with Zuma's attorney but later said it "could be just mislaid".

"But you said it was not available because it was in Parliament," Squires said. The defence has told the court on many occasions that the agreement was filed in Parliament as all parliamentarians have to declare assets and liabilities. Squires yesterday raised an eyebrow, remarking: "This document is somewhere in circulation but you cannot get it."

The state has difficulty believing that the original document exists *1, and if it does, they claim it was hastily written as both parties allegedly had no plans to really document the so-called loan.

During Mohammed's cross-examination, state prosecutor Anton Steynberg asked if she backdated the agreement to May 16, 1999. He said her evidence that she met Zuma and Shaik in the week of the elections did not correspond with the date, as the elections were in June, not May. Mohammed said she must have mixed up her dates but she was certain the agreement was drawn up in May.

When asked if she still had the laptop computer on which she drew up the agreement, Mohammed said it was stolen from her office a few years ago. During the lunch adjournment, the state sought information from the police station at which she said she reported the theft, but there was no record of a report by Mohammed.

Mohammed said her father could have reported the case as her offices have been broken into at least seven times *2. To "satisfy" the state, she has agreed to hand over her insurance claims to prove that the laptop computer was stolen.

Mohammed also said she went to Paris on Zuma's behalf to find out whether "Shaik had used his name to get money from the French".

She said Zuma sent her with a list of questions for French arms manufacturing company Thomson-CSF bosses, but most importantly to get a copy of the encrypted fax that had caused a media frenzy.

Mohammed said the French were not forthcoming with her, but did respond to questions in a letter from Zuma. Asked if she was willing to hand over the file relating to these meetings, Mohammed agreed while Shaik looked at her and shook his head.

The defence also called its second witness. Zandile Mdhladhla, chairperson of the Jacob Zuma RDP Education Trust, said she only became aware of the R1 million that Nelson Mandela donated from the trust's bank consultant. Mdhladhla's evidence relates to the defence's argument that Shaik was not facilitating an annual R500 000 bribe from Thomson-CSF but a donation for the trust.

With acknowledgements to Nivashni Nair and The Natal Witness.

*1  Everyone has difficulty believing that the original document exists - because there was none.

*2  Richard Nixon could only manage it once. This must be a world record.