Deputy President Jacob Zuma was "extremely liberal" with his money, but always tried to help others as well.

This was the evidence of his self-proclaimed close friend, Abdool Quadir Mangerah, this morning in the Durban high court criminal trial of businessman Schabir Shaik.

Mangerah, who runs an import-export business in Durban, served with Zuma on the ANC southern Natal regional executive.

He told the court that Zuma had started borrowing money from him in 1994, some of which he paid back, but not all.

When Zuma was pressurised by financial institutions for debts he owed them, he asked Mangerah to lend him R100 000 and promised to pay it back in two to three months.

"It did not happen," Mangerah told the court.

Zuma had later arranged with him to extend the repayment period, but by December 1996, Mangerah said, payments from Zuma "had dried up".

He told the court that Zuma had then asked him for a written breakdown of what was still owed to him.

In March 1997, Mangerah testified, Shaik had given him post-dated cheques valued at R150 000. At that stage he was owed about R154 000 in total by Zuma.

"I was disappointed that I was handed post-dated cheques, the account was very long overdue, I expected settlement sooner than that."

Shaik had been threatened with legal action after some of the cheques had been stopped by the bank.

Mangerah also said that he had never contemplated claiming the money from the ANC.

It was pointed out to him under cross-examination, however, that he had told the Scorpions during their preliminary investigations that he hoped the ANC would back Zuma.

Mangerah told the Scorpions that Zuma had not been getting a good salary and had had to travel extensively at his own expense between 1994 and 1997.

The trial continues.

With acknowledgements to Estelle Ellis and the Cape Argus.