Publication: Weekender Issued: Date: 2007-04-26 Reporter: Karima Brown

Chippy Plans to Leave SA, says He is the Victim of a Vendetta

 

Publication 

Weekender
Date

2007-05-26

Reporter

 Karima Brown

Web Link

www.bday.co.za

 

Chippy Shaik, brother of jailed Durban businessman Schabir Shaik, is planning to leave SA and relocate his family to Australia.

In his first interview since numerous allegations against him resurfaced, Shaik said he was effectively being hounded out of a country he had served loyally.

Shaik, a mining engineer *1 who is already working in Australia, told The Weekender that his privacy has been “permanently invaded” and that his right to travel “freely” had been constantly brought into question by allegations that he holds two passports.

This week Shaik also had to fend off allegations he plagiarised his mechanical engineering doctorate with the assistance of a group of academics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

The embattled Shaik denied any wrongdoing and said it was up to the university authorities to deal with the allegations regarding his doctorate.

However, Shaik said the latest allegations were the tipping point in his decision to leave SA.

Shaik is no stranger to controversy and shot to infamy when SA’s arms deal came under the spotlight following widespread allegations of corruption.

The government appointed a three-agency probe into the saga which eventually found that the primary contracts in the arms deal were above-board.

Shaik was extensively questioned at the time but was never charged.

Shaik told The Weekender he believed that he was the victim of a “vendetta” orchestrated by old elements within the arms dealer community *3 who felt they had lost out during the government’s arms deal.

“In 1998 I was accused of planning to assassinate former president Nelson Mandela, in the now infamous Meiring Dossier, together with Robert McBride.

“After that I was accused of receiving kickbacks in SA’s arms procurement deal and of favouring my family in the procurement process. Now this (the plagiarism saga).”

“It has to stop. I stayed on in my job as chief of acquisitions for two years to allow for a full investigation, and I co-operated with all the agencies investigating the arms deal. I have never been charged with anything, I was not fired from my post. In fact, I resigned after I was offered a promotion, and yet I find myself hounded still years after the process has been concluded. I no longer have … faith in the legal process,” Shaik said in response to allegations that he had reportedly received a R21m kickback in SA’s arms deal.

“I want to take my children out of this environment, out of this country.

“I can’t find work in SA, I have in fact become a migrant worker setting up base in Australia and I will soon be taking my family there to settle,” Shaik said.

With acknowledgements to Karima Brown and Business Day.


*1       Is a mining engineer an engineer who mines a bit, or someone trained in mining engineering?

Chippy claims to have a Master's Diploma in something or other from the Natal Technikon, a Master in Science in Mechanical Engineering from the San Diego State University and a Doctorate in Philosophy in Engineering from the University of Natal.

The latter claim maybe true in terms of the award of the degree, but the claim is flawed because the submission is flawed.

But does this still leave Chippy as a mining engineer?


*2      But this is what we thought from way back when.


*3      Clearly this vendetta is not by me because I can hardly claim or be described as an old element of the arms dealer community.

I am neither old (I was only 35 when Project Sitron started and 39 when the Arms Deal was initiated) and I've never sold any arms or armaments in my life.


That Chippy has never been charged with any misconduct arising out of the Arms Deal is a serious indictment on the performance and or will of the relevant investigating and prosecuting authorities.