Durban: "I believe in my innocence," said Durban businessman Schabir Shaik yesterday, just moments after he was sentenced to 15 years in jail for fraud and corruption.

"Verily, with me is my Lord. He will most certainly guide and protect me," Shaik told a group of journalists and onlookers on the steps of the city's high court.

After a trial lasting eight months, Shaik was sentenced yesterday after the court found him guilty of having a "generally corrupt" relationship with Deputy President Jacob Zuma, whom he bankrolled to the tune of at least R1.2 million.

Judge Hilary Squires imposed another 15 years for the second charge of corruption for facilitating a bribe for Zuma from French arms company Thomson-CSF, and another three years for fraud.

The sentences are to run concurrently, making it a 15-year jail term in effect.

Shaik's bail of R100 000 was extended until July 26, when his advocate is to apply to the court for leave to appeal against his sentence.

Squires said the question of punishment of people guilty of criminal offences was the "most difficult and anxious aspect" of the trial.

He said the three things to consider when deciding on a sentence, were the circumstances of the offender, the nature of the offences and the interest of the community in the type and level of sentencing.

All Shaik's offences fell under the Criminal Law Amendment Act, for which there was a prescribed minimum sentence of 15 years.

However, he found mitigating circumstances for not imposing the same minimum penalty for the fraud charge, saying Shaik had not been the instigator, and that the crime had not harmed anyone else.

Reading his 15-page sentence, Squires said: "I do not think I am overstating anything when I say that this phenomenon (of corruption) can truly be likened to a cancer eating away remorselessly at the fabric of corporate privity, and extending its baleful effect into all aspects of administrative functions, whether state official or private sector manager.

"If it is not checked, it becomes systemic. And the after-effects of systemic corruption can quite readily extend to the corrosion of any confidence in the integrity of anyone who has a duty to discharge, especially a duty to discharge to the public."

Squires said Shaik's "corporate empire's progress and prosperity" was plainly linked to the possibility that Jacob Zuma would finally become president.

"What was important to him (Shaik) was the achievement of a large multi-corporate business group... and the power that goes with that, and close association with the greatest in the land.

"It is precisely in such circumstances that corruption works." Shaik gave Zuma "a sustained level of support" to fund a lifestyle the politician could not otherwise afford, said Squires.

This was an investment in Zuma's political status, from which Shaik expected to benefit. "These were not payments to a low-salaried bureaucrat seduced into temptation," he said.

The higher the status of the beneficiary, the more serious the offence.

Squires pronounced sentence in a packed courtroom A, stripped of the rows of lever-arch files which had been stacked around the room for months.

He described Shaik as a man of commendable vision, ambition and energy, but one who appeared to have lost his "moral compass" and scruples.

Shaik's brothers, his wife and bodyguards were dressed in sombre colours. His spiritual leaders shared a bench with the media immediately behind him.

Shaik was seen taking a small white page out of his pocket and reading from it. It may have been the same page from which he quoted passages from the Qur'an to the media.

Throughout the sentencing Shaik looked at the judge. Afterwards he turned to his wife, Zuleikha, behind him and kissed her on both cheeks. His brother, Mo, gave him a bear hug, while the tears were streaming down the face of his half-brother, Salim.

Concluding sentencing proceedings, Squires said: "This is the last step in a thousand-mile journey."

Prosecutor Billy Downer, SC, told the media he was relieved it was over, but refused to comment on the case before July 26.

The National Prosecuting Authority's Makhosini Nkosi said they were satisfied with the sentence which he described as "stiff."

With acknowledgements to Wendy Jasson da Costa, Mariette le Roux and the Cape Times.