Publication: Cape Times Issued: Date: 2006-11-07 Reporter: Jeremy Gordin Reporter: Reporter:

Shaik Flies Home to Wife and Baby Son

 

Publication 

Cape Times
Date

2006-11-07

Reporter

 Jeremy Gordin

Web Link

www.capetimes.co.za

 

A shattered Schabir Shaik flew home from Cape Town to his wife, Zuleika, and baby son, Yasir, in Durban last night to enjoy his last hours of freedom before beginning a 15-year sentence in jail.

As he left Cape Town, his counsel, Jeremy Gauntlett, SC, and Francois van Zyl, SC, were poring over the Supreme Court of Appeal's judgment in the hope of finding a legal basis for an application to the Constitutional Court.

But no one in his camp, let alone Shaik, former financial adviser to one-time national deputy president Jacob Zuma, seemed to be holding out much hope of finding anything strong enough on which to base a high court request for an extension of bail.

The day had begun for Shaik with quiet confidence, but degenerated into disbelief and anguish, punctuated with flashes of his old devil-may-care bravado, before settling into resignation as the cold reality of going to jail hit him.

"It's still not clear what the counsel may find," Shaik said.

"But I need to get back home - the other necessary arrangements have been made - and spend time with wife and child."

Shaik seemed resigned to finishing the saga that had begun with the Hefer Commission in 2003 *1 and saw him being charged and then convicted by the Durban High Court of one count of fraud and two of corruption.

"It looks as though my brother is also keen to make closure on this issue," Shaik's brother, Yunis, said at a press conference held at midday.

Speaking on the verandah of a Cape Town hotel shortly before lunch - and just after hearing that the Supreme Court of Appeal had dismissed his appeals against his convictions and sentences - Schabir Shaik said: "Well, a whole new chapter in my life is just about to start.

"Those fellow prisoners of mine better watch out. The new Hannibal Lecter, the new Tamerlane, is coming to town," Shaik added, smiling and puffing on a Nicaraguan cigar brought to the hotel by a friend.

But Shaik was clearly trying to keep up his spirits and those of his brothers and friends.

For, as soon as the judgment was announced on the radio, a mood of anguish and despondency settled over those with Shaik - his brothers, Yunis and Mo, attorney Reeves Parsee and several other friends and relatives.

Only Schabir was able to smile and joke, although he said his greatest concern was not for himself, but for his wife and young son. "My son and my wife - eish!" he said sadly, two or three times.

Earlier, Schabir chose not to listen to the judgment and walked through the hotel gardens holding his prayer beads.

With acknowledgements to Jeremy Gordin and Cape Times.


*1       The saga for Schabir Shaik never started with the Hefer Commission - it started proper on 14 November 2001 when it was announced in Parliament that the Arms Deal Joint Investigation would result in an arrest the next day. Schabir Shaik was arrested the next day.

The subject of the Hefer Commission was a desperate attempt by Mac Maharaj and Mo Shaik to deflect the focus of the broader NPA investigation into Schabir Shaik's unlawful business dealings with Maharaj and Jacob Zuma by sullying the name of the National Director of Public Prosecutions.

The rebound is with compound interest at the maximum rate allowed by the Usury Act.

Watch this space.