Publication: Cape Times
Issued:
Date: 2008-02-27
Reporter: Karyn Maughan
Bid to stop confiscating R33m
Johannesburg: Schabir Shaik has conceded that he bribed ANC President Jacob
Zuma.
But, in a final legal bid to stop the state from confiscating R33 million from
Shaik, his lawyers yesterday insisted that the state never proved these bribes
were the only reason Zuma used his political clout to assist his former
financial adviser.
Shaik's legal team want the Constitutional Court to stop the Assets Forfeiture
Unit from permanently confiscating R33m of his assets, which the state claims
Shaik obtained after Zuma intervened in a dispute between him and French arms
company Thomson/Thint.
Asked by the court whether there was any evidence that "there had been a bribe"
prior to Zuma's intervention with Thomson, Shaik's counsel, Martin Brassey, SC,
responded: "Oh decidedly" *1.
But, pointing out that Zuma had not been charged or called
to testify in Shaik's trial *2, Brassey stressed that there was nothing
to show that Zuma's decision was not motivated by friendship or a desire to
assist his then financial adviser.
"The question we have to ask ourselves is whether the
bribes were the only reason for Mr Zuma's intervention *3 ... we don't
know what was operating in Mr Zuma's mind," Brassey said.
The state previously showed that Zuma met Thomson after the company, acting on
information that then-President Nelson Mandela and Deputy President Thabo Mbeki
did not like Shaik, seemingly started backing out of its relationship with the
businessman.
After meeting Zuma on July 2, 1998, Thomson recommitted itself to a business
relationship with Shaik and his companies - resulting in Shaik obtaining a 20%
interest in African Defence Systems (ADS).
ADS was awarded, as part of the Thomson consortium, a multimillion-rand contract
to provide the combat munitions suites for the South African Navy's new
corvettes.
It is these shares and their dividends that the state seized from Shaik, arguing
they were the proceeds of crime.
Brassey yesterday tried to undermine any idea that Zuma was a knowing party to
the corruption and instead suggested Zuma acted after
hearing about Shaik's problems with Thomson *4.
"What kind of friend would he be to say 'why should I (help)?'" Brassey said.
Shaik maintains he would have obtained the ADS shares without Zuma's help and
previously told Justice Hilary Squires, who first convicted him, that he was a
"fighter" who would have gone to court to get his rightful part in ADS.
Squires was unconvinced, finding that between October 1995 and September 2002
Shaik, or one of his companies, made 238 payments totalling R1 340 078 million
to Zuma in return for his name and influence in his business enterprises.
Counsel for the state Wim Trengove yesterday also poured scorn on Shaik's
defence claims.
"Why did Thomson go into business with Shaik? Was it because of his
arms business experience *5, his
wealth *6 or his charm *7?
"The answer is obvious: they did it because Mr Zuma was in Mr Shaik's camp and
Mr Zuma was in his camp because Mr Shaik was paying him to be in his camp.
"Shaik could wave him (Zuma) as his prize to anyone who got into bed with him
..." Trengove said.
Describing Brassey's argument as "conceptually flawed", he stressed Zuma's
intervention on Shaik's behalf to Thomson was not an isolated incident but had
been proved to be "part of a pattern of conduct".
Trengove also questioned why, if Zuma had intervened on Shaik's behalf out of
friendship, "he would have paid so highly for something he could have had for
free".
"In the end Mr Shaik bribed Mr Zuma for his protection, and intervention and
political influence... It's a matter of historical fact that the bribe got him (Shaik)
the benefit (of the shares)," he said.
According to Trengove, evidence in the Shaik trial had shown "how
proudly, how brashly and how loudly *8 Mr Shaik
used the Zuma carrot and the Zuma stick" to achieve his own ends.
Trengove was questioned by the court about Brassey's argument that seizing both
Shaik's ADS shares and their dividends was a disproportionately harsh
punishment, particularly considering Shaik had already been sentenced to 15
years in jail and fined R1 million.
Speaking to the media outside court, Shaik's brothers
maintained forfeiting R33m to the state could hamper their efforts to have him
released from prison *9.
Judgment has been reserved.With acknowledgement to Karyn Maughan
and Cape Times.
*1 A response with which Moe Shaik
and others must be decidedly ecstatic.
*2*3 The Straw Man argument, either that or clutching at straw
men.
*4 Any which way is unlawful if Zuma was a member of
government (which he was - albeit not central government at that tine) or
executive of the ruling political party (which he was) and he received money for
his acts of commission or omission.
*5 None.
*6 None.
*7 Some - until one crosses him.
So this is the basis of BEE and transformation?
No wonder this country is a proverbial away from total collapse.
*8 Some charm.
*9 Rubbish.
At one stage circa 2004 Schabir Shaik claimed to be worth R100 million in his
personal capacity.
Since then he has lost R34 million to the AFU, paid about R10 million in legal
fees, paid about R20 million in tax, paid about R6 million in medical fees, paid
about R10 million in bribes so that he can have a cushy time in prison including
going home on weekends, earned at least R30 million in interest and earned at
least R50 million from the driver's licence contract.
So he should have at least R100 million left which which to bribe whoever it
takes to get him out early.
Not bad for an instrument technician with a clutch of fake qualifications who
started his arms dealing bumiputerian charm business in 1996 with a cellphone, a
seat in the coffee shop on the ground floor of the Royal Hotel, but with a
clutch of friends making up the Royalty of Operation Vula.
While others on the white side of the divide worked for 30 years or more 12
hours a day, six days a week, got a clutch of genuine post-graduate degrees from
proper universities, bonded their modest homes for finance, provided proper jobs
and careers for dozens of graduate engineers and many PDIs, developed
world-class domestic products that were at the same time good enough to find
application and deployment in the world's top defence forces and at the same
time earn the country millions of Rands in taxes and millions of Dollars in
foreign exchange - but only at the end of it all to leave a very modest residue
to finance the catching of bait to fish for corrupt men.