The Supreme Court of Appeal has postponed the appeal of Durban businessman Schabir Shaik until September 25 as one of the five judges set to hear the matter will not be available.

The hearing had been expected to take place later this month.

The court said that its deputy president, Lex Mpati, had to undergo an operation and would then need a month to recuperate.

Shaik, the former financial adviser of former deputy president Jacob Zuma, was convicted on two counts of corruption and one of fraud by the Durban High Court last year.

He was sentenced to 15 years in prison on two counts of corruption and three years on a count of fraud.

The postponement will give the prosecution more time to focus on the application made by Zuma and arms company Thint for a permanent stay of prosecution in Zuma’s corruption trial in the Pietermaritzburg High Court.

Nearly all members of the state’s legal team in the Zuma case, including lead prosecutor Billy Downer, are also involved in the Shaik appeal.

Pietermaritzburg High Court Judge Herbert Msimang last month postponed Zuma’s and Thint’s case until September 5 to allow for the state to respond to the defence’s application for a permanent stay of prosecution as well as time for all three legal teams to file heads of argument.

The trials of Zuma and Shaik remain linked because the state claims that Zuma had a “generally corrupt” relationship with Shaik, and that he took a bribe from Thint in exchange for his support for the arms company’s bid in the arms deal.

Although there is a strong principle that one person’s contravention does not implicate the other, the state and Zuma will be watching the appeal process closely because the charge sheets against Shaik and Zuma are nearly identical.

A failed application by Shaik would give the state’s case against Zuma and Thint a boost.

Shaik’s appeal will be in two stages. First, he will appeal against his conviction and 15-year sentence on the third charge of corruption.

Shaik will ask the appeal court whether the Durban High Court had been correct in admitting an encrypted fax as evidence. The fax detailed a meeting at which Shaik allegedly negotiated a R500000-a-year bribe for Zuma.

The court will also decide whether Shaik should appeal against the other corruption charge and a 15-year sentence for his “generally corrupt relationship” with Zuma after hearing oral evidence.

With acknowledgement to Ernest Mabuza and Business Day.