FORMER defence department acquisition boss Shamin "Chippy" Shaik is probably the person most central to any story of the arms deal. Using his official influence and position, Chippy is alleged to have colluded to earn huge defence contracts for his brother Schabir's arms company.
Schabir has been arrested and charged with having secret documents relating to the arms deal. Chippy is suspected of giving them to him.
In real life Chippy comes across a lot better than on television. He is friendly, which is more than a little surprising considering the media has probably written enough about the man to break most normal humans.
Chippy has never spoken to the fourth estate before, and the first thing he does is tell me how happy he is to be able to speak to the media now.
"You see, under the old minister of defence, Joe Modise, we were allowed to talk to the media. Anyone was free to give interviews and answer questions. Under Terror Lekota though things were different.
"Department of defence officials had to ask permission before speaking to the press. I was never given permission to talk though heaven knows how many times I requested permission. I was desperate to go on television when Carte Blanche did their story but I was not allowed."
The very first question I put to him is an obvious one to anyone who has followed the deal.
"Yes, I gave my brother the documents he has been charged with having. I admit it happily."
This is somewhat of a shock. Chippy's brother Schabir has been charged, and is out on bail, for having what the state contends are highly classified cabinet minutes and other documents relating to the arms deal. Chippy has just confessed to me that he is an accomplice in what the state alleges is a crime.
Chippy explains himself: "You see there are two documents involved. The first is a letter to the secretary of defence that I wrote. The second are notes of what happened during part of a cabinet meeting. They were both given to Schabir by me, and I absolutely make no apology for doing so.
"My brother has been charged with two offences relating to these documents. The first is theft, the other relates to having broken laws that protect state secrets. I am not particularly close to my brother, but for his sake I wish this trial would get to court as soon as possible.
"It will be so easy for my brother to clear his name in court, but until such time as that happens everybody looks at us as though we are criminals.
"In terms of department of defence rules the only person who can classify documents is the person who writes the document.
"The rules also say that documents should not be classified unless there is a legitimate reason for doing so.
"One wants to be seen to be open and transparent.
"I never classified the letter I wrote to the secretary of defence, and the secretary never complained to me that I should have classified the letter.
"The letter was in no way classified. Schabir was entitled to have it.
"Secondly, neither the secretary for defence, nor I, have laid a complaint of theft relating to this letter, so I find it strange my brother is alleged to be a thief. Who after all has complained of a theft? What is the offence?
"Then, what everybody has been describing as cabinet minutes are not in fact cabinet minutes. They were my own rough notes.
"I attended a cabinet meeting as a representative of the department of defence, and made some notes to share with my colleagues the notes only concerned a small part of the meeting and were intended to help me write for internal department publications.
"The notes were hardly secret and again I admit giving them to Schabir. Dozens of other people in the department were also given the contents of those notes. Again I ask where is the crime?"
Pressed on why he handed over the documents, Chippy says: "I handed them over as they concerned attacks that were being made against ADS and Thales Schabir's companies. The letter to the secretary of defence was written to correct a factually incorrect impression that was doing the rounds about these two companies. I wrote the letter, and annexed some press clippings to it, in order to put the situation in perspective.
"I thought that as the contents directly impacted on Schabir I should copy him in the correspondence. There was nothing at all underhand about it. I often copied people into correspondence for the sake of being seen to be open and transparent. And one other important thing that nobody has picked up. The contracts had already been signed by the time I gave those documents to Schabir."
Asked about his conflict of interest, Chippy has an explanation too. Armscor, the state acquisition body, had no policy requiring conflicts or possible conflicts of interests be declared.
"When I mentioned my brother's arms company I was told to just ignore it. I was told that nobody ever bothered to declare these sorts of things and that, in the old days, it was accepted practice to award contracts to pals and relatives. I have heard of a case where an old-guard army general had a factory in his backyard producing military uniforms. He was given contracts by his pals in Armscor."
Having quit the department Chippy is into mining on a very small scale, he hastens to add. He is mining for a rare mineral called tantalum, a mineral used in the production of electronic goods. He says he can just about make ends meet but has no great wealth.
He is now known as Doctor Chips by his friends, having completed his Phd only a few weeks ago.
"I'm not bitter about what happened to me. My family and I are used to hard knocks and long ago I realised that you have to take what life deals you and smile.
"My brothers and I grew up in a coloured neighbourhood, and had to attend an Indian school. Thanks to the pencil test and the apartheid system we were all given different racial classifications. One brother was a Malay, the other a Cape Malay, the other an Indian. It was ridiculous.
"The upshot of it was that we lived in a coloured neighbourhood where the kids hated us for going to an Indian school. At school those kids hated us for living in a coloured neighbourhood. Every day we were in a fight. Almost every weekend we were stabbed. I almost lost my eye in a fight one weekend. Life was tough.
"Then my mother died on the freeway because the ambulance that was sent for her was a black ambulance and she was made to wait for the white one.
"It's not hard to see why we took to fighting the government of the day. But the Shaik family never fled the country. We stood and fought. I've been in many, many prison cells and jails as a result.
"I hate to blame apartheid for anything as it seems so fashionable to do so, but you can understand why my brothers and I sometimes come across short-tempered. It has not helped our image and nor has my enforced silence."
Chippy hardly looks the man of vast wealth one would expect. He drives a Mercedes but an old one he bought second-hand.
"Remember the scandal about Tony Yengeni and his cheap Mercedes? Well, I could have had one as well. I turned it down. I'm a man of some principles, despite what many claim. I'll let you in on a little secret though. The chief of the South African Air Force got one. He's never been prosecuted. Nor have a lot of other top brass from Armscor and the SANDF. But they are mostly the old-guard Afrikaner elements."
Shaik says he has battled financially as a result of the deal. On reading of his resignation from the department his bank foreclosed on his overdraft within a week. Nobody will lend him funds for his mine as they fear the bad publicity. Even his friends decline to do business with him openly lest they be suspected of corruption.
Even traffic cops those notoriously heartless beasts of the highway pity him. Doctor Chips tells a tale of how he was recently let off a speeding ticket as the traffic police recognised him and told him they felt that, even without a ticket, he was in enough trouble for any one man to handle.
Asked about the allegations he favoured his brother's arms companies, Shaik shrugs: "You know Schabir has not made the billions everybody thinks. You must realise Schabir is only a director and shareholder in Thales in this country. It is the French parent company that got the contract for the combat suite. My brother is not a shareholder in the French company so he sees none of that money.
"And let's not forget my brother lost out on the contract for the submarines a contract he was desperately trying to secure. As a result of that he had to close down most of his Mount Edgecombe factory."
As I am about to leave Chippy offers me a lift to the airport. His car smells a little of peri-peri chicken.
Earlier he had asked the waiter for a doggy bag to take home the remains of his lunch something one would hardly have expected from a man caught up in an international arms dealing skandaal.
Chippy is wearing a Swatch his daughter gave him, not the standard arms-dealer Rolex or gold Omega.
Driving along he shows some humour. "You know, in the old days people used to buy the (Mail & Guardian) simply to see if they were in it. It used to make me laugh watching officials skimming the papers in a nervous fashion to see if they featured. My best ever was reading a joke about myself: what do you get if you cross a vibrator with a potato? A Chippy Shaik.
"I really enjoy reading and watch the media quite closely. I really admire Zapiro the cartoonist. He's drawn a few cartoons at my expense, but he has great talent and obviously some courage. He takes on anyone who needs to be lampooned, and rightly so. We should have no holy cows. In fact, I really take my hat off to him as a Jewish person for standing up to the Israeli state and lampooning their leaders."
Driving along the N3 I admire a passing canary yellow Ferrari 355F1 GTS, as does Chippy.
"You know my dream, Paul? To hire a car like that and be seen driving it with a big cigar in my mouth. I'd like to see the way people would then gossip about the notorious arms-dealing Chippy Shaik and his vast wealth."
