Durban — Judge Hillary Squires yesterday reserved judgment on whether the Asset Forfeiture Unit could lay claim to assets and cash worth R34,5m from convicted fraud Schabir Shaik.

The Durban businessman was convicted on two counts of corruption and one of fraud last year as a result of his “generally corrupt relationship” with former deputy president Jacob Zuma.

Shaik is out on bail pending his appeal. The state has already “preserved” assets worth R28m via a court-appointed curator pending Squires’ decision on the confiscation order. His decision in this civil matter, after a two-day hearing in the Durban High Court, will determine the value of Shaik’s gains by corrupt means, to which the forfeiture unit will be able to lay claim.

Shaik was not present at all during the two-day hearing. His brother, Mo was the sole family member in court on both days.

Proceedings opened yesterday with defence counsel Nirmal Singh arguing the law was not a means “to enrich the state”.

His comment followed arguments from Adv Wim Trengove yesterday that the state should confiscate shares worth R21m Shaik holds in African Defence Systems (ADS) — the joint-venture company between Shaik’s Nkobi Holdings and French arms group Thomson-CSF to secure arms contracts, dividends worth R12,7m Shaik earned from the ADS shares, profit of R500000 earned from the sale of Thomson-CSF shares and the R250000 the French company paid as a bribe to Zuma.

Trengove had argued the state was entitled to both the value of the shares and the dividend.

Yesterday Singh countered this was “a double payment” that enriched the state.

He said Nkobi and Thomson-CFS had an agreement predating Zuma’s intervention in Shaik’s business dealings, meaning the businessman had an established right to the ADS shares.

With acknowledgements to Nicola Jenvey and the Business Day.