Deputy President Jacob Zuma has lodged a vitriolic complaint with the Public Protector about the investigations of his finances.

Zuma claims that investigations into his affairs are continuing despite public statements that they had concluded, and that Scorpions boss Bulelani Ngcuka has abused his powers.

He said yesterday that Ngcuka seemed intent on keeping him under a "permanent cloud of suspicion".

He was left "with no alternative but to conclude that the investigation was designed, in the main, to further agendas that remain unknown to me".

Zuma said his complaint about the investigations by the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) over the past three years focused on the abuse of power.

This related particularly to the manner in which the investigation was conducted, the way in which the conclusions drawn were communicated, as well as the reported continuation of the investigation.

Zuma said there was no basis for the continuation of the investigation because, he claimed, the NDPP became aware very early on in the investigation that there was no basis for the allegations.

"They claimed they initiated the investigation against me for the alleged attempted solicitation of a bribe by myself from the French company, Thales, as part of corruption in the arms deal."

He said that as early as 2001, a Thales representative had informed the NDPP during questioning that "no such attempt had been made to him, by me or anybody else within the South African government".

This was further confirmed later in correspondence sent to the NDPP by the chairman of Thales, "who according to the allegations was supposed to be one of the recipients of an encrypted fax", Zuma said.

He said that as he had been an MEC in KwaZulu Natal at the time crucial decisions were taken by the cabinet about the multibillion-rand arms deal, it would have been impossible for him to influence decisions.

Zuma's financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, faces criminal charges in connection with the arms deal.

Zuma said: "Contrary to the NDPP's assertion in the highly publicised charge sheet of Mr Schabir Shaik, that I 'influenced the decision-making process', they were fully aware that, as an MEC in the KwaZulu Natal provincial government at the time, I could not have influenced this process."

His participation was limited only to the approval of recommendations about the arms procurement package after he joined the cabinet in June 1999, at the tail end of the process, Zuma explained.

He said he had never questioned the right of Ngcuka to investigate him "should he believe there was reason to do so, but I strongly believe that they had no basis to continue with the investigation despite the information they received from the French".

He asserted that Ngcuka had conducted the investigation "in bad faith, motivated not by the need to earnestly search for the truth but to cast aspersions on my integrity".

An example of this was the manner in which detailed "confidential" information about the investigation was made readily available to certain sections of the media, in apparent contravention of the National Prosecuting Authority Act, Zuma said.

He said information about the investigation had been leaked since November 2002 and that the information given to the media "could therefore only have been released by the national director himself or on his express authority".

Zuma said the off-the-record briefing involving Ngcuka and a select group of black editors in July "also substantiates the view that the release of personal and confidential information about me to the media was part of a campaign aimed at destroying my reputation and to perpetuate mysterious agendas, rather than to further the course of justice."

Sipho Ngwema, spokesperson for Ngcuka, said last night that as there was "nothing new" in Zuma's allegations, the NDPP would not be responding to his statement.

With acknowledgements to André Koopman and The Star.