Cape Town - Deputy President Jacob Zuma's personal financial adviser Schabir Shaik has threatened to take the investigative magazine noseweek to court, following allegations in the magazine that Shaik paid off a young woman who alleged she had been raped by Zuma's son, Muziwoxolo.

In an interview with a Cape radio station, Shaik again denied knowledge of the alleged pay-off, saying the allegations are designed to "malign and misrepresent" the deputy president.

"I am happy to challenge noseweek in court. I am going to take them head on and I am happy to debate the issue publicly with them," Shaik said.

In its latest edition, noseweek reported that, in October 2000, Muziwoxolo (Edward) Zuma (24) was charged with raping a fellow student at the University of Zululand. The alleged rape victim was in her first year and not yet 18. According to noseweek, Muziwoxolo was arrested on October 22, 2000, but two months later the prosecution withdrew the charge after the girl apparently indicated she would not be able to stand the trauma of a trial.

noseweek alleges Shaik intervened to assist Zuma junior and the woman was put on the payroll of one of his companies, Kobitech Transport Services. It quoted the then managing director of the company Sabeer Sheik (no relation to Shaik) saying he was aware of the "pay-off".

When asked whether he had brokered a deal which saw the allegation of rape go away, Shaik responded: "Absolutely not". He said he was not aware of, or involved in, the case.

"This story has been making its rounds for the last two-and-a-half years. It has no basis I think it is fabricious and, in my view, hardly deserves a response, but I think I need to respond because our deputy president is a public asset."

Asked whether anyone was put on the payroll of Kobitech Transport Services, Shaik said "absolutely not".

Shaik said that the Kobitech MD (Sabeer Sheik), who told noseweek he was aware of the payoffs, has been fired. "This is the person who lacks the kind of truth to even maintain a position as MD We did not tolerate his conduct and asked him to go."

Shaik said he did not believe there was ever "any attempted rape by Mr Edward Zuma on any person. I think again this has been an issue which in my view is totally fabricious. As to the fact that we paid someone to diminish the ends of justice is totally wrong.

"Anyone who does that should be prosecuted and I am happy to stand prosecution if someone can prove that I had any dealings with this matter."

Responding, noseweek editor Martin Welz said he stands by his story. "We are news reporters. We report what witnesses tell us The MD of the company that made the payments told us that the payments were made and that he discovered them late and raised it as an issue We managed to identify the alleged rape victim and found she had an attorney representing her who indicated there were settlement talks, but who would not talk to us about them. Finally, we have Mr Shaik's personal secretary at the time, saying she was also aware of the settlement discussions. A further secretary, not quoted in our story, told us she witnessed when the lady in question came to the office to fetch her money from time to time.

"We put these direct allegations to Mr Shaik on 20 May and on two subsequent occasions Mr Shaik, who has on other occasions replied to our reporters' e-mails on other issues, chose to ignore those three e-mails and I am afraid the convention in the media is when you've given someone the opportunity to respond to allegations and he chooses not to respond then we run with the allegations."

Welz said that, prior to publication of the story, he received a phone call from Shaik. "'He told me he has his guns trained on me I gather Mr Shaik is not very fond of me."

With acknowledgements to Sue Segar and The Natal Witness.