Johannesburg: The ANC said yesterday it had no relationship whatsoever with Floryn Investments or Nkobi Holdings.

The organisation was responding to media reports that it owned Floryn Investments, via its nominee Schabir Shaik, and that Floryn in turn owned 10% of Nkobi Holdings - a company that benefited from the arms deal.

The reports flowed from allegations in the charge sheet against Shaik, a Durban businessman facing corruption charges.

"We wish to state categorically that the ANC has no relationship with Floryn Investments, or with Nkobi Holdings for that matter," ANC spokesman Smuts Ngonyama said.

He was addressing journalists at the ANC Women's League conference at Nasrec south of Johannesburg.

Ngonyama said the ANC had concluded its internal investigation into the allegations.

The party's Office of the Treasurer-General had stated that "there has never been any agreement with any entity or individual, as alleged, to act as nominee for the ANC".

"The suggestions, therefore, that the ANC may have benefited from the arms deal are at best mischievous and at worst malicious," said Ngonyama.

"We wish to emphasise that the ANC has never benefited from the arms deal, directly or indirectly, and any suggestions to the contrary are nothing more than slander aimed at undermining the integrity of the ANC."

With acknowledgements to Sapa and the Cape Times.