A businessman facing criminal charges related to the arms deal accompanied Deputy President Jacob Zuma on an official government trip abroad.

Schabir Shaik, who is also being investigated by the Scorpions over an alleged R500 000-a-year arms deal bribe, accompanied Zuma on a trip to Senegal in April.

That was five months after he was arrested for being in possession of classified Cabinet minutes that allegedly gave him an unfair advantage over competitors bidding for chunks of South Africa's controversial multibillion-rand arms deal.

Both men are being investigated by the Scorpions over a R500 000-a-year bribe from a French defence group - part of a consortium chosen to supply South Africa with four new corvettes. They have strongly denied the bribery allegations.

Shaik was in Dakar, Senegal, during the Conference on the Financing of Nepad (the New Partnership for Africa's Development).

The Sunday Times has a copy of Zuma's conference travel itinerary.

It confirms that Shaik accompanied the Deputy President and drove in an official motorcade from the airport in Dakar to the Meridian Hotel. He shared a car with Zuma's doctor, driving behind South African and Senegalese security, who in turn followed Zuma and the Senegalese Prime Minister, Mame Madior Boye, in a VIP car.

Shaik left South Africa on flight LMG 212 from Waterkloof Air Base outside Pretoria on April 14 and returned home two days later on an SAA flight via Ghana.

Only official military and diplomatic aircraft use Waterkloof Air Base.

Presidential spokesman Bheki Khumalo said: "As far as I am aware, Schabir Shaik is not an official member of Nepad."

He referred all inquiries to Zuma's office.

But Shaik's lawyer, Reeves Parsee, said Shaik had been invited on the trip by "the secretary of Nepad".

Shaik was Zuma's personal financial adviser and they were "good friends", said Parsee.

"They are friends. Sometimes [Zuma] would ask Shaik to accompany him on overseas trips. It's the nature of the relationship they have," he said.

Lakela Kaunda, Zuma's spokes man, said: "The Deputy President wishes to reiterate that he rejects all allegations of bribery and corruption made against him, which are designed to cast negative aspersions on his integrity."

She said that he had not been involved in any unlawful activity and he regarded all the allegations being made in media reports as "ridiculous and mischievous in the extreme".

The link between Shaik and Zuma falls under the spotlight on Wednesday when Ian Pierce, a director of Futuristic Business Solutions, a South African arms company, appears in the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court in Pretoria.

Pierce was arrested last year after he failed to supply arms deal investigators with certain documents.

His company is a shareholder in African Defence Systems, of which Shaik is a director.

Zuma was drawn into the arms deal probe in a court affidavit by the Scorpions, who said they were investigating whether he had a hidden interest in African Defence Systems.

Zuma was first named in documents filed in a High Court application to get permission to raid the premises of Shaik's company, Nkobi Holdings, and a number of its subsidiaries.

Nkobi has links with a French arms company, Thales, which secured a large slice of the arms deal.

Part of the government investigation of the arms deal involved the way in which Thales or its South African partners were awarded contracts.

The allegations in the court papers, though filed in August last year, became public last week.

They detail an alleged arrangement for Thales to pay Zuma R500 000 a year in exchange for "protection" from a government investigation as well as continued support that could benefit the company.

Among the documents found in Shaik's possession were minutes of a meeting held at President Thabo Mbeki's house that had been written by Shaik's brother, Shamin "Chippy" Shaik, who was in charge of the government's arms acquisitions.

With acknowledgements to Jessica Bezuidenhout, Mzilikazi wa Afrika and the Sunday Times.