The Scorpions raided Jacob Zuma's homes and offices because the National Prosecuting Authority needed to ascertain why he had taken millions of rands in payments from convicted fraudster Schabir Shaik, the Supreme Court of Appeal was told today.

"The fact that Shaik made payments to Zuma with corrupt intent does not mean that Zuma received those payments with the same corrupt intent," counsel for the State Wim Trengove argued.

Trengove said the disputed searches were also prompted by the State's belief that "the pattern of corrupt payment continued well after the investigation into Shaik" - and also involved high-profile business people.

The ANC deputy president was fighting his fourth court battle over the search-and-seizure raids on homes and offices belonging to him and his attorney, Michael Hulley.

Trengove conceded yesterday that the warrants used to search the offices of Zuma attorney Julekha Mohamed violated the constitution.

But he was making no such concessions this morning as he argued that the State had needed to use search warrants to raid the homes and offices of Zuma and Hulley because Zuma and his associates would otherwise not have co-operated with Scorpions investigators.

After Shaik said in evidence that his payments to Zuma had been "innocent" loans, the State had needed to establish whether this was true.

This is the second day of the latest episode in the long-running court battle with Zuma and his legal representatives over the Scorpions raids.

They were carried out in August 2005, when investigators seized around 93 000 documents. These formed the basis of the State's forensic audit of Zuma's finances and showed payments he received following the State's investigations into the relationship between Zuma and Shaik.

With acknowledgement to Cape Argus.