Johannesburg - Schamim "Chippy" Shaik was a "significant contributor" to the journal article he is alleged to have plagiarised in his thesis, his brother Yunis said on Sunday.

"Shamim Shaik is a co-author and significant contributor of the very journal article that he is said to have plagiarised," wrote Yunis in a statement in his brother's defence.

Yunis Shaik was responding to a Sunday Times report according to which "more than two-thirds" of Chippy Shaik's 2003 PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the then-University of Natal had been plagiarised.

"The article is mentioned in the bibliography. More importantly, his co-authors deny the allegation of plagiarism and contend that Shamim was entitled to make use of the work as a co-author," he added.

The exposé comes on the eve of a petition by the pair's convicted fraudster brother, Schabir, to the Constitutional Court to get out of jail early.

Timing 'calculated'

Yunis Shaik told the SABC: "The timing of this thing is just calculated to wreck our Constitutional Court Case... to embarrass us."

In his statement, he wrote that the journal article in question was entitled "Refined Theory of Laminated Anisotropic Shells for the Solution of Thermal Stress Problems", published in 1999. Its authors were VE Verijenko, TR Tauchert, S Shaik and PY Tabakov.

Risks doctorate being revoked

Chippy now risks his doctorate being revoked. The academics who supervised the thesis - Professor Viktor Verijenko, head of the School of Mechanical Engineering at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), and his colleague, Professor Sarp Adali - face being fired.

The UKZN would investigate "substantiated allegations of plagiarised degrees", according to a statement by the institution's acting deputy vice-chancellor, Professor Isobel Konyn, which was published in the Sunday Times.

With acknowledgement to Sapa and News24.