Concourt ruling hailed by state prosecutor, who says team is 'on the right track'

A fter six years and three court battles, Scorpions advocate Billy Downer and his team have proved their fraud and corruption case against Jacob Zuma's former financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, beyond any doubt.

And now, after the Constitutional Court yesterday dismissed Shaik's appeal against his conviction and effective 15-year sentence for corrupting Zuma, Downer and his colleagues are focusing their full attention on the ANC deputy president himself.

The ruling, which removed a potentially huge stumbling block in the state's as-yet-unconfirmed recharging of Zuma, was yesterday hailed by Downer as "showing us that we are on the right track".

Downer said he felt "gratified and vindicated" by the Constitutional Court's exoneration of his conduct, about which Shaik and Zuma had both complained.

Speaking after meeting Scorpions boss Leonard McCarthy, Downer said he and prosecutors Anton Steynberg and George Baloyi would now finalise their investigation into Zuma.

But Zuma's attorney, Michael Hulley, seemed unperturbed by the state's victory, saying their win had little or no bearing on any pending case against Zuma. "The fact of the matter is that Mr Zuma was not the person on trial," he said.

Hulley also rubbished suggestions that the court's refusal to consider Shaik's "unfair trial" claims against the state ased largely on records of the state's aborted prosecution of Zuma and Thint would prevent Zuma from raising similar claims in the future.

"Ours is a simple response: this was a ruling on whether Mr Shaik had a reasonable prospect of success in appealing against his convictions and sentences. Nowhere was there any pronouncement on the merits of the appeal itself.

"This judgment is essentially about a technical matter and I can't see how it could increase or decrease the state's level of confidence about its prospects of success in prosecuting Mr Zuma."

Hulley declined to comment on reports that the Scorpions' investigation into Zuma would be reviewed by acting National Director of Public Prosecutions Mokotedi Mpshe - who replaced suspended NPA head Vusi Pikoli last week.

Late yesterday afternoon, government spokesperson Themba Maseko said prosecuting and government authorities wished to clarify that "not all cases will be reviewed and that decisions about prosecutions in outstanding matters would be taken in due course in accordance with the law".

Whether the Zuma prosecuting team's investigation will be subjected to review or not, they will have to wait just over a month to hear the outcome of their final round of court battles with Zuma, which relates to the Scorpions' controversial August 2005 raids on his homes and offices, as well as his attorneys' offices.

The Supreme Court of Appeal is also set to rule on Zuma's attempt to prevent the Scorpions obtaining the originals of 14 Mauritian documents copies of which were used to prove that Shaik solicited a R500 000 bribe from French arms company Thint by mid-November.

The rulings are expected weeks before the ANC elects its president.

Zuma has claimed that the state's renewed efforts to investigate him were "engineered" to cast him as an accused criminal in the months before the "crucial" succession race.

But these allegations have been roundly rejected by the state, which went as far as to ask both the Pretoria High Court and Supreme Court of Appeal that Zuma be punished for the "scandalous" allegations with hefty legal costs orders.

Meanwhile, Shaik took the news of his failed appeal bid "with brave dignity".

"He didn't break down," Shaik's brother Mo told The Star yesterday.

Shaik's distraught wife, Zuleika, travelled to Westville Prison's hospital yesterday in a desperate bid to comfort her husband, but the authorities wouldn't allow her access to him.

Instead it was left to Shaik's brother Mo and his brother-in-law Yusuf Vahed to break the news.

"We knew this day would come … but the fact is that he's not in prison for murder, he's not in there for rape. Today may be the end of our legal options, but it's not the end of the world. It's not the end of hope," said Mo.

With acknowledgements to Karyn Maughan, Greg Arde and The Star.