Publication: Sunday Times Issued: Date: 2007-03-18 Reporter: Paddy Harper Reporter: Buddy Naidu

Chippy Shaik Goes to Ground

 

Publication 

Sunday Times

Date

2007-03-18

Reporter

 Paddy Harper, Buddy Naidu

Web Link

www.sundaytimes.co.za

 

Rumours fly as key figure in arms deal probe disappears.

The man who is now at the centre of the newly announced three-pronged investigation into South Africa’s controversial R40-billion arms deal has gone to ground.

Former Head of Procurement for the arms deal at the Ministry of Defence and brother of jailed fraudster Schabir Shaik, Shamin Chippy Shaik, 46, cannot be found and his family have thrown a net of secrecy over his whereabouts.

The Sunday Times has been told that he has set plans in motion to flee the country as he does not want to take the chance of spending time in a South African jail and is making his way to Perth in Australia.

Schabir Shaik was sent to jail for 15 years for fraud and corruption in the arms deal which involved soliciting a French arms dealer to pay the former Deputy President Jacob Zuma a bribe of R500 000.

The Sunday Times has established that a Dr Shamin Shaik, with exactly the same identity number *2 as Chippy, flew from Durban to Johannesburg via British Airways and then on to Singapore last Sunday.

The return date on the ticket is for April 30. But sources close to the Shaik family said they were protecting him.

“It’s very clever of them to say that he has gone to Mozambique. He has gone.”

It has also emerged that Shaik holds a number of passports.

On Thursday, after political pressure and requests for assistance from investigators in Germany and Britain; the Scorpions, the Auditor- General and the Public Protector made a decision to split the arms deal investigation.

Now Shaik has emerged as a key figure in the probes by the various international agencies.

What he fears most is the investigation by German authorities into claims that he was paid a R21- million bribe from German arms manufacturer ThyssenKrupp to ensure the success of their bid to supply South Africa with submarines *1.

Shaik resigned from the defence ministry in 2002 after being suspended and charged for being in possession of classified Cabinet documents.

On Friday the DA’s Eddie Trent issued a statement saying that there were strong rumours that Chippy Shaik’s whereabouts were unknown.

“If he has fled the country it raises even more questions about his alleged involvement in the arms deal and makes it all the more necessary that those authorities investigating this matter do so with the greatest urgency.”

Since Friday Shaik’s family and friends have provided conflicting reports on his whereabouts.

His wife, Zarina, who was at the couple’s plush Virginia, Durban, home, said her husband was in Mozambique.

She said Chippy was “very difficult to contact” but was “in Mozambique busy with the mining”.

Brother Yunus (sic - Yunis) Shaik on Friday said, “He is still here. He travels constantly up and down to Mozambique, where he has mining engineering.”

But yesterday he refused to say whether his brother had caught the plane on March 11 to Singapore.

At Shaik’s second, upmarket home in Fourways in Johannesburg, Zane Isaacs, who claimed to have moved into the home two weeks ago as the new tenant said: “He’s gone back to Durban. He is a Durban boy and you know how they miss the sea.”

Yunus Shaik denied his brother had fled the country, describing the claim as “completely, utterly rubbish” and “off the wall”.

“He does business between here and Mozambique. He travels all the time. He is CEO of a company which has the rights in mining and of necessity he has to travel.

“He has never been charged or warned and already has attended to a subpoena from three agencies. There is no restriction on his rights of movement or his right to trade.”

Yunus said his brother’s family, home and bank accounts were all still in South Africa.

“I hear from Chippy all the time. I even phoned Chippy to tell him that this is the story. Him and I had a laugh about it *3.”

With acknowledgements to Paddy Harper, Buddy Naidu and Sunday Times.


*1       Ouchah - corvettes.

Messrs Paddy Harper's and Buddy Naidu's slip might have indeed been Freudian: ThyssenKrupp's new partner company MAN-Ferrostaal allegedly paid large bribes to secure the contract for the submarines and Chippy would have been well-placed at silly point to catch some of that wonga.


*2      There surely cannot be that many 46-year old Dr Shamin Shaiks from Durban with a birth date of 22 October 1960?


*3      What's important is who has the last laugh - for that's sure to be loudest and longest.