Johannesburg: The former head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Bulelani Ngcuka, yesterday refused to comment on the guilty verdict passed on Durban businessman Schabir Shaik.

"I am following the advice of my mother-in-law," said Ngcuka, saying she had told him to keep control of his mouth.

"I will not comment on the case," he told an Institute of Directors lunch here.

Although the media had received an invitation from the Institute of Directors to the lunch, Ngcuka tried to have them barred from his talk.

"The organisers have put in me in a very difficult position ... If I had had the foresight to know that the talk would coincide with what was happening in the country, I would have said no," he said.

Ngcuka, who is now chairman of the empowerment company Amabubesi Investments, was head of the NPA when Shaik was charged with fraud and corruption in August 2003.

At the time, Ngcuka said that although the NPA had "prima facie" evidence against Deputy President Jacob Zuma, he would not be prosecuted because it would be impossible to win the case. Ngcuka resigned from the NPA in July last year.

He told the Institute of Directors that, when reflecting on his time at the NPA: "I had a rough ride but a good time."

He said he had succeeded in turning around the initial mistrust of the prosecutors, had instilled in them a sense of pride and commitment to their work and built public confidence in the NPA.

With acknowledgements to Sapa and the Cape Times.