Nelson Mandela has been drawn into the controversy surrounding Deputy President Jacob Zuma.

The Mail and Guardian has confirmed that one of the R1-million amounts referred to in the draft charge sheet against Zuma's financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, was in fact a donation from the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

The charges against Shaik referred to a R1-million cheque issued in December 2000 by Zuma in favour of an entity called the Development Africa Trust.

The trust is chaired by Durban multi-millionaire Vivian Reddy, who describes himself as Zuma's close friend. It was Reddy who arranged Zuma's R900 000 bank bond to pay for his rural homestead development, Nkandla.

Reddy signed surety for R400 000 of the bond and agreed personally to make repayments on the loan, at least for the first year.

In their draft charge sheet, the Scorpions suggested the payment to the Development Africa Trust was part of a money-laundering operation. They suggested an alleged bribe for Zuma from French arms company Thales had been disguised via a transfer of money to Reddy's Trust.

The implied benefit to Zuma was that Reddy later took over or assisted Zuma with a liability of about R1-million arising out of the cost of building his Nkandla homestead.

However, John Samuel, CEO of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, said the R1-million had been part of a R2-million donation paid over to the Jacob Zuma RDP Education Trust. He said it was expected that R1-million of that amount would be paid to the Development Africa Trust, which had indeed occurred, as far as he was aware.

Samuel said he was unaware of the precise arrangements whereby the R1-million was apparently transferred using an account controlled by Zuma or Shaik.

According to the Scorpions, Zuma's initial R1-million cheque bounced because of a lack of funds. It is not clear if two later payments of R250 000 from Shaik to the Development Africa Trust formed part of the Mandela donation or were additional amounts.

This question is significant, as the R250 000 figure was highlighted by the Scorpions because a similar figure was received shortly beforehand by Shaik from Thales, allegedly on Zuma's behalf.

Meanwhile, Eric Malengret, the builder responsible for the construction of Zuma's Nkandla development, has said he is taking legal advice on whether to join a class action for defamation against the Scorpions. Among the other plaintiffs would be Reddy.

Malengret said the Scorpions were provided with documents and evidence under oath that "clearly indicates that at no stage did either myself or my close corporation ever receive money in respect of the Nkandla project from either Schabir Shaik, Nkobi, Development Africa Trust, Reddy, and/or [Reddy company] Edison Health".

With acknowledgements to Sam Sole and the Mail & Guardian.