Fraudster: Schabir Shaik, whose bid for leave to appeal has been opposed

Convicted fraudster Schabir Shaik has no constitutional grounds on which to appeal against the Supreme Court of Appeal’s confirmation of his 15-year corruption and fraud sentence, according to papers submitted to the Constitutional Court this week.

In an affidavit filed on Thursday in opposition to Shaik’s application for leave to appeal before the Constitutional Court, Scorpions investigator Johan du Plooy argued that during his Durban High Court trial and subsequent appeal, Shaik had made no attempt to raise questions about the constitutionality of his prosecution.

Shaik’s attempt to undermine the Appeal Court’ s judgment on the basis that it had mistakenly attributed the term “generally corrupt relationship” to the trial court was similarly flawed.

“The phrase ‘generally corrupt relationship’ correctly reflects the substance of the High Court’s judgment in the criminal proceedings. The difference between the phrase ‘generally corrupt relationship’ and other phrases that the High Court employed to describe the relationship as a matter of fact, is merely semantic,” Du Plooy said.

“The SCA was quite correct to say that the High Court had found that there had been a generally corrupt relationship between [Shaik] and [Jacob] Zuma. Its only error was to ascribe the phrase of ‘a generally corrupt relationship’ to the High Court.”

Du Plooy added that both the prosecution and Shaik’s legal team used the term or variants of it throughout the trial as a “convenient label to identify the essence of the corruption allegations”.

ý On Monday, Zuma made a fresh bid to force the state to declare when it intends charging him with corruption again.

Zuma’s demand was made in papers opposing the state’s application for crucial documents from the Mauritian attorney-general .

The state wants original documents including the diary of Thint official Alain Thetard, which allegedly notes the meeting at which Thint, Zuma and his former financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, discussed a bribe for Zuma.

The documents are being held by the Mauritian courts in terms of an earlier injunction.

Zuma argued that the prosecution had already unlawfully used copies of these documents as part of its “win at all costs” strategy against him.

Zuma said: “I specifically challenge the state to positively state whether a decision to proceed against me has been made and, if not, when it will be made .

“I am entitled to know this,” he said, adding that if the state does proceed against him, he will again launch an application for permanent stay of prosecution, as he had done during his corruption trial last year.

With acknowledgements to Paddy Harper and Sunday Times.