Businessman Schabir Shaik attempted to obtain donations and not a bribe for Deputy President Jacob Zuma from French arms company Thomson- CSF, the Durban High Court heard on Wednesday.

This is the defence's response to the state's allegations that Shaik solicited a bribe of half a million rand per year for Zuma in exchange for protection during investigations into irregularities in South Africa's multi-billion rand arms deal. Shaik who faces two counts of corruption and one of fraud is also alleged to have used his "political connectivity" through Zuma to get a slice of the arms deal from which Thomson also benefited.

Defence advocate Francois van Zyl said the money which Shaik tried to get from Thomson was destined for Zuma's RDP Education Trust fund and would be used for bursaries.

He said Shaik had been approached to be a trustee but had declined due to "business pressure" but he had undertaken to raise funds for Zuma.

At the beginning of 2000 Zuma asked Shaik whether they could get assistance from the French.

Van Zyl said Shaik complained that he could not get hold of Alain Thetard from Thomson (South Africa) who was based in South Africa and he then wrote to him on February 11.

"Shaik will say Thetard wanted to meet Zuma and Shaik will say that a meeting was initially scheduled for March 11 but it happened on March 10," Van Zyl told the court.

He said the meeting took place at the official residence of the presidency, Kings House in Durban. Van Zyl said the issue of the donation was raised at the meeting and that Thetard undertook that the Thomson group would make a donation but no amount was mentioned.

The parties met again in May because the money had still not arrived. They also discussed Shaik's unhappiness that Nkobi was not getting any work share from ADS, the umbrella under which Nkobi and Thomson tendered for the government's naval corvette contract.

Forensic auditor Johan van der Walt who was under cross-examination at the time said the donation was a "noble idea" but he had found no record of any donation apart from money paid to and on behalf of Zuma from Shaik and his Nkobi Holdings.

Van der Walt, who had produced a 259-page audit report on Nkobi and Shaik's finances and the paper trail linking them to Zuma, said it was "not unfamiliar in the business world" for donations to be made. However, he said it was something "one is proud of" and it was not regarded as a secret in a company document.

At the start of proceedings on Wednesday the state produced a surprise witness, chief police inspector Pierre Coret from Mauritius. Coret said that in 2001 he was an inspector in the Economic Crimes Office when it received a court order from South Africa requesting assistance in a search and seizure operation in Mauritius.

In terms of the order police could enter and search premises. This included the offices of Mutual Trust Management and Thales International Africa Limited, which was situated in the same building.

Coret said that before the operation he received a briefing in which he was told Mutual Trust Management was the offshore management company of Thales International Africa, a division of Thomson-CSF France (later renamed Thales international).

Before Coret took the stand Van Zyl said he would allow the witness to give testimony because documents relating to the search had previously been mentioned in court. However, the defence would challenge the admissibility of the documents at a later stage.

Before Coret took the stand, presiding Judge Hilary Squires ruled against a state applica (sic)

Professor John Lennon cannot come to South Africa before February next year and the state had asked that he be allowed to give evidence via video-linkup on November 23 and 24. However this would have to be done at the University of kwaZulu-Natal because the court itself did not have such facilities.

On Wednesday Squires said a criminal trial must take place in an open court and that the space at the university would not accommodate everyone, including the media.

However, he said if the necessary facilities could be installed in the court, or be found elsewhere, he would reconsider his judgment subject to opposition from the defence.

With acknowledgement to Wendy Jasson da Costa and Sapa.

* It is mighty unusual for a donation agreement to be recorded in a secret encoded fax after having been acknowledged by a pre-defined encoded signal between Benefactor and Beneficiary. Furthermore, the donation was indicated to Thomson-CSF head office as being offered in respect of protection during an investigation regarding tender irregularities, specifically Project Sitron (the SA Navy Corvette Programme).

Questions :

Why would the donation be offered per year until ADS started paying dividends?

Donations are tax deductible (especially in France), while dividends in South Africa are taxed in the company's hands at the company tax rate of 30% plus 12% odd STC.

Why would the donation be in respect of efforts related to the SA Navy's Project Sitron and not to other Thomson-CSF projects in Southern Africa such a credit card driver's licences or SA Army or SA Air Force missile systems?

Such an admission from the Defence is about as close to Nirvana as the Offence can get.

Nirvana

This is a Buddhist term which means a state of mind where all suffering and dissonant emotions which give rise to suffering have ceased and one is released from samsara -- the endless cycle of evidence-in-chief, examination, cross-examination and re-examination.