President Thabo Mbeki yesterday refused to comment on the corruption scandal surrounding his second-in-charge.

Asked by The Sunday Independent yesterday whether Zuma should resign, Mbeki declined for the second consecutive day to give his views on the controversy, insisting that he had already made it clear that he would not publicly discuss the issue plaguing his presidency.

"No, no, no, I'm not going to discuss the question," an irritated Mbeki said on Friday when approached in Ceres, near Cape Town, for comment on the allegations against Zuma.

Joel Netshitenzhe, one of Mbeki's top aides, made it clear last week that the government was opposed to the persistent calls for Zuma to resign.

"If the government allowed a precedent to be set whereby allegations against senior leaders lead to their resignation, then we would allow spanners to be thrown anyhow, anytime into the government works," Netshitenzhe said.

Essop Pahad, the minister in the president's office, said earlier yesterday that Mbeki would not be drawn into the furore as it was a matter for the judicial system.

"Nobody's above the law, if anybody has done anything wrong, they must be charged."

The state's elite crime-busting unit, the Scorpions, unveiled last week the result of three years of investigations into Zuma and Schabir Shaik, his financial advisor, and painted an elaborate picture of a deputy president allegedly at the receiving end of a R1 million in bribes from a French owned company that benefited from the arms deal.

In its charge sheet - submitted to a Durban court on Monday - against Shaik and his Nkobi group of companies, the state alleges that Zuma solicited a R500 000-a-year bribe from French arms company Thomson CSF/ Thales, which successfully bid for a contract in the arms deal.

With acknowledgements to Jeremy Michaels and the Sunday Independent.