"I did what I did because I believed that Deputy President Jacob Zuma's human rights had been violated. I have no regrets."

That's how journalist-turned-spindoctor Ranjeni Munusamy reacted yesterday to the verdict in Durban businessman Schabir Shaik's fraud and corruption trial.

Speaking to The Independent on Saturday from Johannesburg, Munusamy, who sounded dejected, said the verdict had left everybody in the Shaik camp "shaken".

"Obviously, over the past few days it has been very hard. We all tried to rally around Schabir and his wife, Zuleika, who are at the centre of all of this. Everybody has tried to protect them. We have put our personal pain and trauma aside to make them strong. The solidarity in the group has strengthened because of all of the setbacks we have all suffered," she said.

She was so shocked by the verdict, that she started "feeling sick" after judgment and had to fly back to Johannesburg.

"I do not know why I am sick but this (the verdict) may have contributed. It has been devastating . . . We have all suffered and we have lost a lot over the past two years. We threw ourselves on the tracks and the train has crushed us. However, I have no regrets.

"I did what I did because I believed that Deputy President Jacob Zuma's human rights had been violated," she said.

Munusamy, who now owns a communications company, said in the past few months she had set aside everything and devoted her energy to the trial.

"I suppose that now, apart from dealing with the challenges around judgment, we have to start assessing the damage, picking up the pieces and moving from there."

The former Sunday Times journalist became entangled in the Schabir Shaik imbroglio after it emerged that she had written a story alleging that former National Prosecuting Authority boss Bulelani Ngcuka was a former apartheid spy.

The allegations, which were later proven to be without substance, resulted in President Thabo Mbeki appointing the Hefer Commission of Inquiry.

"I still say the trial was more political than criminal *1," she said. "It is unfair that the Shaik family, which has contributed so much to the country's struggle for freedom, is going through all of this."

With ackowledgements to Bheko Madlala and The Independent on Saturday.

*1 The truly guilty should stand up and also accept their just desserts.