A state witness in the fraud and corruption case against Jacob Zuma says he
can't wait to take the stand - to defend the African National Congress
president.
"I am hoping I will be called so that the truth can finally be told," KwaZulu-Natal
businessman Vivian Reddy, who reportedly assisted Zuma after he incurred a debt
of more than R1-million on his Nkandla development, told The Mercury on
Thursday.
Adding that he was "very disappointed" when he was not called to testify in the
trial of Zuma's former financial adviser Schabir Shaik, despite being listed as
a state witness in that case, Reddy said he "wanted to set the record straight"
about the payments.
Meanwhile, The Mercury has learned that the state's
disputed forensic audit into Zuma's financial affairs, once it has been handed
in as an exhibit, will publicly reveal that four other politicians also received
payments from Shaik *1.
It is understood that none of these individuals has
been charged over the transactions *2.
While casino boss and Edison Corporation head Reddy is one of three alleged "Zuma
backers" who has been listed as a potential witness against Zuma, the state has
also criticised him - and his fellow "backers" - for the explanations they
offered in respect of their "suspect" payments to Zuma.
In an affidavit filed at the Constitutional Court last month, Senior Special
Investigator Johan du Plooy stated that Zuma had received "suspect" payments
from Reddy, former "BEE Businesswoman of the Year" Nora Fakude-Nkuna and German
businessman and President Thabo Mbeki confidante Jurgen Kogl.
Fakude-Nkune, a close friend of Zuma who resigned from the Mpumalanga Economic
Empowerment Corporation after a forensic audit showed she had granted a
R1,4-million loan to her own company, allegedly made R100 000 in payments to the
builder of Zuma's Nkandla homestead in 2000.
According to exhibits in Shaik's trial, London-based Kogl and his company Cay
Nominees paid R700 000 towards bonds on Zuma's properties and R183 000 to cover
the outstanding debt on his Mercedes-Benz 230E.
It was partly Reddy's, Fakude-Nkuna's and Kogl's "false" answers to questions
about the payments that prompted the Scorpions to raid their premises in 2005,
Du Plooy said.
"Mr Reddy provided very substantial assistance to Mr Zuma for which he has
failed to give any satisfactory explanation... His version that the funds he
provided to Mr Zuma were loans seems to be controverted by the evidence of those
transactions.
"After protracted correspondence, (Kogl) eventually provided us with an
affidavit and later with another one, but neither of them provided satisfactory
explanations for his transactions involving Mr Zuma and Thint.. There is every
reason to believe that Mr Kogl's explanations are false.
"(Fakude-Nkune) failed to give any satisfactory explanation for her payments to
or for the benefit of Mr Zuma and could not provide any documentary evidence of
them.
"I concluded that this raised doubts about the completeness and veracity of the
information she provided and that a search was necessary to establish the truth
about the payments to or for the benefit of Mr Zuma," Du Plooy said.
Fakude-Nkune's attorney Snowball Skosana said his client had not been aware of
the claims made against her in the Constitutional Court but would study them.
He stressed that she had never been charged in connection with the Scorpions'
claims against her.
* This article was originally published on page 1 of The Mercury on January
04, 2008
With acknowledgements to
Karyn Maughan and Independent Online.
*1Luverly, but this is an indication
that the KPMG Report II has been leaked to someone in the Independent Newspapers
group.
Now the report was furnished to the defence over a year ago and now, of course,
small juicy bits of it are being used as counter-battery fire; in this case to
spread the culpability across many more souls and thereby dilute the political
blameworthiness of Accused 1.
Me thinks someone highly trained and experienced in counter-intelligence takes
the KPMG Report II home to bed every night before making a late night call
phonecall to a favorite Embedded Journalist.
We are guaranteed to see more independently on Sunday.
Why not also read Karen Bliksem as occasionally it is quite amusing and often it
is quite informative on particular matters?
*2In at least one instance this is to the shame of the NPA
and another blot on their copy book.
The NPA has been investigating for years and have never even had the presence to
publicly say that the investigation has led to a decision to prosecute or not.