Durban - Convicted fraudster Schabir Shaik says his lengthy Facebook post about “a friend”, who he cautioned to refrain from luxury life was not a message to President Jacob Zuma.
Shaik was released on medical parole in 2009 after serving two years and four months of his 15-year prison term of corruption.
Last week, he wrote a poetic message on his Facebook page that some believed was directed at Zuma.
“And most of all, to all those that wish to govern us commoners, remember you are the servants of the people, you are supposed to serve the poor and needy, the sick, the hungry and the homeless.
“You should be living a paltry life and not a life of luxury or in the pursuit of self riches. For I warn you, if you fail to do so, then you condemn not just yourself but your family and their children, you all will become pariahs and outcasts in society.
“Your ill-begotten gains will have no value. Your life work forgotten your name a starting note for a joke to every joker opening his or her show (sic),” he wrote.
When The Mercury phoned Shaik to get clarity on his post, he said the message was a general statement about friendships and he added that he had been let down by many friends in his life.
“Not everything in my life is about Zuma. This post is not about him, but about friendships in general. Why would I want to be disrespectful to my president who is my comrade-in-chief and my friend?
“I do not understand why people are so obsessed about Zuma. Not everything in this world revolves around Zuma,” he said.
Schabir said in his post that many of his friends had dumped him.
“Yes, now I know, or should I say, I have rather come to painfully realise, what I considered good and pure friendship, friends in life and for life. You planned and plotted until you got to the other side, then cut the rope leaving me abandoned to the wolves, alone for me to survive.”
The Mercury