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Today, 22 November 2009

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Yesterday, 21 November 2009

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Deputy president Jacob Zuma met Schabir Shaik and Alain Thetard, the South African boss of French arms company Thomson CSF, at his official residence in Durban on March 10, 2000.

This was the evidence on Thursday from Shaik in his Durban High Court fraud and corruption trial.

The state earlier handed in as evidence a two-page extract from Thetard's diary which indicated a meeting on March 11.

However, Shaik said it was moved to Friday the 10th and that the meeting lasted 20 to 25 minutes.

Zuma was previously asked in parliament if he had met Thetard on March 11, 2000 or at any other specified dates. His reply had been that he had not met with Thetard on the 11th.

Shaik said the meeting was called because he was an ambassador for Zuma's Education Trust Fund and that he wanted to ask Thetard for a donation for this fund.

Shaik's relationship with French 'increasingly distrustful'

He said at that stage his "relationship with the French was becoming increasingly distrustful" which was why he wanted Thetard to meet Zuma regarding the request.

Shaik said he found himself in a position where he was asking for funds from a group "for which I was losing respect".

The distrust came as a result of a disagreement because he felt his Nkobi group should get workshare rights and benefits from African Defence Systems as a result of obtaining a defence contract.

'Encrypted fax born out of meeting'

The state previously alleged that a so-called encrypted fax recording a bribe of half a million rand per annum for Zuma was born out of this meeting between Zuma, Shaik and Thetard.

This bribe was allegedly in exchange for protection during investigations into arms deal irregularities.

On Thursday Shaik told the court he had no knowledge of the fax and he did not know what possessed Thetard to have written the fax.

Shaik blamed financial management team

On Thursday Shaik also blamed his financial management team for the irregular write-off of money as Prodiba Development Costs and the creation of a non-distributable reserve in the books of his Nkobi group of a companies.

"The auditors must take responsibility for the advice they give companies like ourselves. The laws that protect them are unacceptable," said Shaik.