"Well, a whole new chapter in my life is just about to start," said Schabir Shaik on the stoep of a Cape Town hotel.

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

Oddly, only Schabir was able to smile and make jokes. Shaik, who had just heard about the judgment of the Supreme Court of Appeal, which dismissed all his appeals against two counts of corruption and one of fraud, was joking – trying to keep up his spirits as well as those of his brothers and friends.

For, as soon as the judgment was heard over the radio, a mood of anguish and despondency settled upon the Shaik group – brothers Yunis and Mo, attorney Reeves Parsee and a few other friends and relatives.

Oddly, only Schabir was able to smile and make jokes, though he said his greatest concern was not for himself but for his wife Zuleika and young son Yasir.

"My son and my wife – Eish," he said two or three times.

Earlier Schabir opted not to listen to the judgment but walked in the hotel gardens holding his prayer beads. Then his brother Yunis went to tell him what had happened and to call him back to the group. Shaik was clearly taken aback.

'We’re not running away, but we are very, very sad.' "I can’t believe it," he said. "Boom, boom, boom, 1,2,3, they didn’t uphold anything. All the lawyers were wrong about what was going to happen."

What was extremely worrying to him was the Supreme Court of Appeal’s denial of leave to appeal on count 1, making it more difficult for a constitutional court appeal.

He immediately went into a meeting with his brothers on the stoep of the Cape Town hotel close to the slopes of Kirstenbosch on the back of Table Mountain, where they are staying.

"Anyway," he said, if they want to lock me up for helping a friend, well, to hell with it I will help my friend again, any time."

"Look here,” said Mo Shaik, "we’re trying to stand tall here and we’re not running away, but we are very, very sad."

Added Schabir, "I could have lived with the fraud conviction, – I’ve admitted responsibility for that anyway – but I just can’t understand how I was found guilty on counts one and three."

Later in the morning he met with counsel to discuss what the next steps would be, especially with regard to an appeal to the Constitutional Court.

Failing this, Shaik will probably have to report to prison in the next 48 hours.

At this stage it is unknown which prison he is due to serve his sentence of effectively 15 years.

Earlier Shaik had been extremely upbeat and, unlike his brothers, said he had slept "like a baby". While having breakfast, he said that he had decided to have much more faith in "God’s law", not in man’s "since man’s law was not as perfect as the Lord’s".

With acknowledgement to Jeremy Gordin and Independent On Line.