DEPUTY President Jacob Zuma's R1,3-million, 12-unit village at Nkandla, KwaZulu Natal, is a jewel.
Built using money Mr Zuma allegedly received in bribes from French arms company Thales (formerly Thomson CSF), the village is situated about 80km from the nearest development.
The estate forms part of the Scorpions' investigation into allegations that businessman Schabir Shaik arranged bribes for Mr Zuma in return for protection of Thomson CSF's arms contract tenders. Mr Shaik is Mr Zuma's financial adviser and is standing trial for corruption linked to the arms deal.
The charge sheet against Mr Shaik details how money for the development was allegedly channelled from Thales, through accounts run by Mr Shaik, to another account run by prominent Durban businessman Vathasallum "Vivian" Reddy.
The charge sheet says that in June 2000 Mr Zuma reached agreement with builders Eric's Industrial Plumbing and Building cc - a close corporation represented by Eric Malengret - for the development of the village at an initial cost of R2 428 360, which was reduced to about R1,3-million.
The village was "finalised" in April 2001, but payments for the work "were not forthcoming". An unnamed "third party who loaned the money to Zuma" made three payments totalling R190 000 to Mr Malengret between August 14 and October 18, 2000.
But, says the charge sheet, the very next day, Mr Shaik asked Mr Malengret to immediately stop building - and Mr Zuma then asked Mr Malengret to continue building, as he was arranging a bond. On October 31, 2000, Mr Reddy paid R50 000 from the account of one of his companies, Edison Health (Pty) Ltd, into the Eric's account, and followed it three days later with another R50 000 from his personal account. Eric's reflected this in its cashbook as "RECEIPT JZ".
Most of Mr Zuma's debt was settled with Mr Malengret in December 2002, using a R900 000 First National Bank bond facilitated by Mr Reddy, who signed a R400 000 suretyship.
Mr Reddy also agreed to pay monthly instalments of R12 117,11 for the first year. Mr Zuma would take over payments after that. "The FNB bond was a device in terms of which Reddy replaced Malengret as Zuma's debtor," says the charge sheet. In addition, on February 22 this year, Mr Zuma signed an "acknowledgement of indebtedness memorandum of agreement" with Mr Malengret, promising to pay an outstanding debt of R250 000 plus legal costs and interest of 15,5 per cent a year, in monthly instalments of R10 000.
"Zuma does not appear to be in a financial position to make such payments," notes the charge sheet.
It goes on to state that in early December 2000, Mr Zuma tried to deposit a R1-million cheque into the account of the Development Africa Trust, set up by Mr Reddy. The cheque bounced.
On February 16, Thales International Africa-Mauritius paid R250 000 into the account of Kobitech, one of Mr Shaik's companies. Eight days later Mr Shaik's company Nkobi deposited the same amount into Development Africa Trust's account.
Simultaneously, Nkobi issued three post-dated cheques of R250 000 each in favour of Development Africa - but cancelled them two months later.
"This indicates that Nkobi intended to pay Development Africa R1-million, which is an amount equivalent to the R1-million cheque that Zuma issued to Development Africa as described above, and which bounced. It is also an amount equivalent to the bribe agreed to between Zuma, Thomson and (Shaik)," the charge sheet states.
Mr Shaik allegedly also made two earlier payments of R125 000 each to Development Africa, on September 4 and September 17, 2001.
The indictment charges that Thomson/Thales funded Nkobi, and that Nkobi "effectively funded" Mr Zuma using mechanisms such as Development Africa, Mr Reddy, Eric's or Mr Malengret - or all of them.
