Deputy President Jacob Zuma's office on Friday night said rape and assault charges against his 24-year-old son had been withdrawn.

Mziwoxolo Zuma appeared in the Mtunzini Magistrate's Court in KwaZulu-Natal on Thursday.

The Natal Mercury newspaper reported on Friday that Zuma - a University of Zululand student - was granted bail of R800. The case was postponed to December 19.

His court appearance follows an alleged attack on a woman at the university's campus on Sunday.

"The two parties discused the matter and resolved it amicably. The complainant then willingly withdrew the charges, saying that she acted emotionally rather rationally in a lovers'tiff," Zuma's spokeswoman Mathula Magubane told Sapa.

A close-friend of Mziwoxolo Zuma said the two had been lovers for the past two years. He said they clashed on Sunday after the respondent did not sleep home on Saturday.

The friend, who did not want to be named, said following the incident the complainant had willingly withdrawn the charges.

"I can tell you that the matter has now been settled. She willingly withdrew the charges...and things have now returned to normal. Even today (Friday) they were together," said the friend.

The charge was laid at a police satellite station, and this made it difficult for the charges to be withdrawn by police.

Asked for comment, Zuma said he believed the law must take its course in the matter of his 24-year-old son.

Zuma, who is in Cuba, said through his spokeswoman Lakela Kaunda that he had heard on Friday about his son's arrest and appearance in court on charges of rape and assault.

"The law should take its course. The deputy president believes his son must not be treated differently just because he is the deputy president's son," Kaunda told Sapa.

Kaunda said the young man's mother was not Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma who last year divorced Zuma.

With acknowledgement to Sapa.