Lawyers for Durban businessman Schabir Shaik lodged papers with the Constitutional Court on Monday appealing his corruption and fraud conviction and jail sentence.

Senior registrars' clerk Delano Louw confirmed that the papers filed included transcripts of the trial, the appeal and an application for condonation of late filing, explaining why they had missed the deadline to bring the Constitutional Court appeal.

Shaik was found guilty of two counts of corruption and one of fraud by Judge Hilary Squires in the Durban High Court in July 2005 and was sentenced to 15 years in jail -- a verdict upheld by a full bench of the Supreme Court of Appeal on November 6.

It was reported on Friday that lawyers for Shaik had failed to lodge papers with the Constitutional Court appealing the corruption and fraud conviction and sentence.

Hearing radio reports on the possibility of papers being filed on Friday, court officials kept the general office open an extra half-hour, to 4pm.

However, it had received nothing from Shaik's lawyers by the end of the Friday -- not even an indication that they intended filing.

At the end of last month, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said it had received a letter from Shaik's legal team giving notice of his intention to challenge the finding in the Constitutional Court.

"I can confirm that we have received a letter, but I can't get into the details of the letter," said NPA spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi.

However, nothing was received by the Constitutional Court.

Earlier on Friday, Shaik's lawyer Reeves Parsee said he hoped to have lodged the appeal with the Constitutional Court by the end of the day.

"We are finalising the documentation and we hope to submit it today [Friday]," he said.

He declined to give any details of the appeal.

Shaik had 14 days from the overturning of his appeal to lodge a challenge with the Constitutional Court.

Shaik started serving his prison term on November 9 when he was transferred from the Westville Prison to the Qalakabusha Prison in Empangeni.

He had to be treated for hypertension when he arrived and reportedly had a stroke on November 25, necessitating his admittance to St Augustine's Hospital in Durban.

With acknowledgement to Sapa and Mail & Guardian.