The star Online
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Appeal court wasn't guided by judge and made own findings on Shaik dealings
November 14, 2006 Edition 2
Linda Daniels
The Supreme Court of Appeal has stood by its judgment that Jacob Zuma and Schabir Shaik had a corrupt relationship.
The SCA, the second highest court in the land, has come under fire and had its credibility questioned after it incorrectly attributed a phrase, the often quoted "generally corrupt relationship", to Judge Hilary Squires in his supposed description of the relationship between Zuma and his former financial adviser.
The furore erupted after Judge Squires wrote a letter to Business Day newspaper last week, in which he said he never mentioned the phrase in his judgment when he was the trial judge in Shaik's fraud and corruption case in the Durban High Court more than a year ago.
Since that trial, it has been consistently reported that Judge Squires had said that Zuma and Shaik had enjoyed a "generally corrupt relationship".
In a statement by the SCA yesterday, it said that while the quote was incorrectly and regrettably attributed to Judge Squires, a corrupt relationship still existed between Zuma and Shaik.
The SCA, through its registrar, said the misattribution did not occur in the SCA's judgment in the criminal appeal, but in the introduction only to the court's subsidiary civil judgment on the forfeiture of Shaik's assets.
The SCA said it had made its own independent findings, which were based on an exhaustive review of the evidence and record of the trial court.