Timelines and key documents were a central point of discussion on day five of the Zandile Gumede corruption trial, which continued in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Durban on Monday.

Gumede's lawyer, Jay Naidoo, threw a plethora of questions at the head of eThekwini's City Integrity Investigating Unit (CIIU), Mbuso Ngcobo, after he seemingly failed to submit certain documents to the court.

The court was adjourned last week after Naidoo made a request for minutes of meetings, and a report that Ngcobo said should have been completed when he signed off on the investigation in March 2018.

Ngcobo has been testifying about the initial processes of the investigation as well as documents involved in the registration of the CIIU's investigation.

On Monday, Ngcobo said the defence team had misunderstood him, adding that a report he received from his team was verbal, not in writing.

"No report was made immediately before outsourcing, there was a report referenced before making a decision," he said.

Ngcobo added that minutes for meetings were not recorded because they did not want documents leaked.

"We do not keep minutes of these internal meetings because we do not want anything to be leaked to the media or anyone else," he said.

The minutes Naidoo requested referred to Ngcobo's testimony in which he said the forensic investigators, Integrity Forensic Solutions (IFS), the police and CIIU signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU).

The MOU saw IFS take the lead in investigating allegations of corruption, fraud and money laundering relating to a Durban Solid Waste (DSW) contract, worth more than R320-million.

The State is alleging Gumede, former councillor Mondli Mthembu, former City manager Sipho Nzuza, the deputy head of DSW, Robert Abbu, and the deputy head of supply chain management, Sandile Ngcobo, all worked in concert as the main role-players in corruption and racketeering.

They were the main individuals who acted as primary persons in an enterprise that conspired to rig DSW contracts to favour their preferred contractors and sub-contractors, the State said.

Naidoo is establishing timelines from when the investigation tip-off was submitted to the CIIU, to the time it was commissioned.

The court heard that an anonymous individual submitted a bundle of information on 7 March 2018, with Ngcobo signing off on outsourcing the investigation to a service provider by 8 March 2018.

By Thursday, 12 March, there was documentation between eThekwini and IFS, to say a decision had been taken for the investigation to be outsourced to them.

IFS had been on a database of 17 investigating service providers contracted to CIIU.