The secretariat of the New Partnership for Africa's Development has dismissed reports that it invited Deputy President Jacob Zuma's embattled financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, to its financing conference held in Senegal in April.

Nepad's denial has raised new questions about why Shaik was allowed to travel with Zuma on an official government trip on state resources.

A Sunday newspaper reported that Shaik had accompanied Zuma to Senegal five months after the adviser had been arrested and charged with being in possession of classified cabinet minutes that allegedly gave him an unfair advantage over competitors bidding for contracts in the government's controversial multibillion-rand arms deal.

The Nepad secretariat on Sunday rejected suggestions by Shaik's lawyer that his client had been invited to the conference.

"If Schabir Shaik was invited, it was not by the Nepad secretariat," said spokesperson Thaninga Shope-Linney after consulting the head of the secretariat, Wiseman Nkuhlu, in Ghana.

She said it was possible Shaik had been invited by another party, as "the conference was organised by the Senegalese government".

Meanwhile, the African National Congress has dismissed the possibility that mounting allegations of corruption, bribery and inappropriate conduct against Zuma will damage his standing at the party's national conference.

"The ANC will not discuss these allegations and it will not have any impact on the deputy president," said ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama.

"Deputy President Zuma's record is impeccable and such allegations are really a very minor thing considering his contribution to the ANC."

Ngonyama said the sustained newspaper reports about alleged wrongdoing on the part of Zuma were "really just allegations".

"They are allegations until they have been proven to be fact and reports in the newspapers don't determine the position that the ANC holds."

ANC insiders said Zuma, along with the rest of the party's top five officials, was expected to retain the deputy presidency of the ANC at its 51st national conference in Stellenbosch next week.

The spotlight has fallen on Zuma's relationship with Shaik, a director of African Defence Systems, after the Scorpions investigation unit named Zuma in court papers, saying they were investigating the possibility that he had a hidden interest in ADS.

Scorpions investigators are also probing Zuma's role in an alleged attempt to secure a R500 000-a-year bribe from a company that successfully bid for a R6-billion contract to supply the Navy with warships.

Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane said while he knew nothing about the allegations other than what he read in newspapers, it was well known that the arms industry invited corruption.

"We need to deal robustly with charges of corruption so our integrity as a nation is upheld," said Ndungane.

However, he emphasised that, in his dealings with Zuma as head of the moral regeneration campaign, he had developed "a deep respect" for the deputy president.

"From the start, we sounded alarm bells on the arms deal but everyone is innocent until proven guilty."

The Democratic Alliance repeated its call to President Thabo Mbeki to set up a commission to investigate the allegations.

"By far the most material question is the probity or otherwise of the deputy president actively maintaining a relationship with a man who faces criminal charges of a serious nature," said DA spokesperson Raenette Taljaard.

Zuma's spokesperson, Lakela Kaunda, was not available for comment on Sunday and aides refused to be drawn on the issue.

With acknowledgements to Cape Argus.