Durban: "I am enough of a businessman, enough of a friend and enough of a person not to have to resort to bribing Deputy President Jacob Zuma," was the message with which a sombre Schabir Shaik took the witness stand to give evidence in his own defence.

"The ANC is very dear to me. The party (taught) me to put my brothers before myself," he told the court.

At the defence's table his brothers Chippy, Yunis and Mo were huddled together next to Francois van Zyl SC. Next to them sat Zuma's counsel, Mohammed Patel.

Shaik, who has pleaded not guilty to two charges of corruption and one of fraud, started his evidence by telling of his "special kind of comradeship" with Zuma. He said he had first decided to join the ANC after his brothers were detained as a result "of a decision taken by Zuma". (He did not elaborate).

"I don't believe that Zuma knew the gravity or the consequence of his decision," he said.

He said his relationship with Zuma began during the liberation struggle, when Shaik was involved in channelling funds to South Africa for the party's operations.

"We literally placed our lives in Zuma's hands," Shaik said.

He called his relationship with Zuma a "different kind of comradeship... Zuma always wanted to know how things were going back home. "

When Zuma returned to South Africa after the unbanning of the ANC in 1990, it was the Shaik family which had taken him in.

"There was no infrastructure for him. Helping him financially was an extension of our comradeship," he told the court.

But what of the state's allegation that this assistance was nothing but bribes, Van Zyl asked him.

"That is untrue," Shaik responded. "Such an allegation does not reflect the relationship I had with (Zuma)."

He also said that he had worked closely with a former treasurer-general of the ANC, Thomas Nkobi, who had planned for the ANC's financial independence by obtaining company shares.

"After Nkobi died (in October 1994), President Nelson Mandela asked me to place everything on hold," he said. In May 1995 the ANC's new treasurer-general, Makhenkesi Stofile, however, wrote to Shaik informing him the ANC had decided not to support the vision he and Nkobi had had.

"It was not the first I heard of this," Shaik said. He told the court that then Deputy President Thabo Mbeki had earlier told him that the party did not want to create the wrong impression as it wished to create a free market economy in SA.

Shaik then pursued these business plans in his personal capacity. To house the income generated by these deals, he started Floryn Investments and Clegton Investments.

It was this money, Shaik explained, that he had used to make donations to the ANC.

Shaik also explained some notes he had made, showing plans to give shareholding in his Nkobi group of companies to the ANC.

"I first thought of giving the ANC shares in the company, but I had to respect Mbeki's view. But at the same time I knew about the ANC's need for funds.

"At one stage I considered a nominal shareholding for the party. I tried to set up some form of empowerment structure. The shareholding as planned did not materialise," Shaik said.

Shaik said that he made over R1 million in payments on behalf of the ANC during 1998 and 1999, which included paying for the rental of safe houses, and vehicles to be used during the election in 1999.

He told the court that in July 1995 he went to Malaysia with Zuma, who was then the KwaZulu Natal Economic Affairs MEC. "He asked me to go with him. It was a party meeting for the ANC. I accompanied him as his economic adviser for KwaZulu- Natal. "

To allegations that he gave shares to Workers College to strengthen his reputation as a black economic empowerment firm, Shaik simply replied: "I don't believe I need any other name. I am from a previously disadvantaged background. I had black directors."

Shaik also admitted to paying for a safe house for Zuma at a time of great political instability in KZN between 1996 and 1997.

The trial continues.

With acknowledgements to Estelle Ellis and the Cape Times.