Scorpions raid Zuma and Shaik’s homes

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s elite Scorpions crime-busting unit has launched countrywide raids on the homes and offices of axed South African deputy president Jacob Zuma and his financial adviser Schabir Shaik, Zuma’s lawyer said yesterday.

Unit members swooped on Zuma’s homes in Johannesburg and in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province, and also searched Shaik’s offices and an apartment in the Indian Ocean port of Durban, Michael Hulley said. “They (the Scorpions) conducted nationwide searches and came with a warrant to seize certain documents,” Hulley told AFP adding that the swoops “came as a complete surprise to us”.”They were not prepared to say anything else,” said the lawyer, who was to consult Zuma.The immensely popular Zuma, who was fired by President Thabo Mbeki in June, has been charged with two counts of corruption in a South African court in connection with a controversial multi-billion-dollar arms deal.His adviser Shaik was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in jail for paying bribes to Zuma and arranging a 500 000 rand annual payment from a French arms firm to shield it from an investigation into the arms deal.Shaik’s sentence is currently under appeal.The 63-year-old Zuma, who faces a 15-year jail term if found guilty, has maintained his innocence and hinted that it was a ploy to block his path to the presidency when Mbeki steps down in 2009 after a second five-year term.Scorpions investigators were apparently blocked from searching Zuma’s home Monday in a leafy Johannesburg suburb by VIP protection unit officers assigned to guard him, SABC radio news said.His homestead in Nkandla, in northern KwaZulu-Natal was also being raided, the public broadcaster reported.Reports also said that Thint, the South African branch of French arms firm Thales (formally known as Thomson CSF) had been raided but the company refused to comment when contacted by AFP.In Durban, Shaik’s brother Mo confirmed that raids had been carried out.”They raided a house that belongs to my brother,” he told AFP.Mo Shaik added that he and his brothers, who are seen as staunch Zuma supporters, were “past being angry at the Scorpions and their violation of rights.””The thing about this is that they took away a lot of documents which we hope would not disrupt the appeals process.But how do you conduct an investigation after charges have already been laid?” he said.The raids on Zuma’s properties come a day after a defiant call by the country’s largest labour federation to Mbeki to reinstate his former number two was rebuffed by government who said its hand would not be forced.The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) had made a radical call to the president to reinstate Zuma and halt his trial, scheduled to start in Durban on October 11.”We hope that no one is calling on the president to break the law or to thrash our constitution and undermine our young democracy because that the president will never do,” Mbeki’s spokesman Joel Netshitenzhe replied.”Government will await any formal submission on these matters.It will be guided in its response by the supreme law of our land, the constitution, which provides, among others, for separation of powers between the executive and the judiciary,” he said.- Nampa-AFP”They (the Scorpions) conducted nationwide searches and came with a warrant to seize certain documents,” Hulley told AFP adding that the swoops “came as a complete surprise to us”.”They were not prepared to say anything else,” said the lawyer, who was to consult Zuma.The immensely popular Zuma, who was fired by President Thabo Mbeki in June, has been charged with two counts of corruption in a South African court in connection with a controversial multi-billion-dollar arms deal.His adviser Shaik was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in jail for paying bribes to Zuma and arranging a 500 000 rand annual payment from a French arms firm to shield it from an investigation into the arms deal.Shaik’s sentence is currently under appeal.The 63-year-old Zuma, who faces a 15-year jail term if found guilty, has maintained his innocence and hinted that it was a ploy to block his path to the presidency when Mbeki steps down in 2009 after a second five-year term.Scorpions investigators were apparently blocked from searching Zuma’s home Monday in a leafy Johannesburg suburb by VIP protection unit officers assigned to guard him, SABC radio news said.His homestead in Nkandla, in northern KwaZulu-Natal was also being raided, the public broadcaster reported.Reports also said that Thint, the South African branch of French arms firm Thales (formally known as Thomson CSF) had been raided but the company refused to comment when contacted by AFP.In Durban, Shaik’s brother Mo confirmed that raids had been carried out.”They raided a house that belongs to my brother,” he told AFP.Mo Shaik added that he and his brothers, who are seen as staunch Zuma supporters, were “past being angry at the Scorpions and their violation of rights.””The thing about this is that they took away a lot of documents which we hope would not disrupt the appeals process.But how do you conduct an investigation after charges have already been laid?” he said.The raids on Zuma’s properties come a day after a defiant call by the country’s largest labour federation to Mbeki to reinstate his former number two was rebuffed by government who said its hand would not be forced.The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) had made a radical call to the president to reinstate Zuma and halt his trial, scheduled to start in Durban on October 11.”We hope that no one is calling on the president to break the law or to thrash our constitution and undermine our young democracy because that the president will never do,” Mbeki’s spokesman Joel Netshitenzhe replied.”Government will await any formal submission on these matters.It will be guided in its response by the supreme law of our land, the constitution, which provides, among others, for separation of powers between the executive and the judiciary,” he said.- Nampa-AFP