Chippy Shaik's woes are mounting. Days after plagiarism claims about his doctorate surfaced, Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula told Parliament her department is probing his possession of two passports.

In a written reply to a question from DA MP Eddie Trent, she said Shaik had two valid passports, issued in 2001 and 2004.

"It appears the person concerned failed to declare possession of the first passport when he applied for the second passport," she said.

The matter was being investigated and if it was confirmed that the second passport was acquired in contravention of the SA Passport and Travel Documents Act, steps to revoke the second passport would be instituted.

Shaik's whereabouts has been under the spotlight since March.

At first he was said to be in Mozambique on business, but this week he was said to have been in Durban.

Shaik has yet to speak to a journalist since claims resurfaced about his alleged involvement in the arms deal, after an exposé by the German news magazine Der Spiegel.

Among those raising suspicions about Shaik's whereabouts is Richard Young, the Cape Town engineer and businessman who has been in a bitter battle with the government since losing a tender for an arms deal contract.

Young has made it his mission to expose what he sees as corruption in the arms deal.

Yesterday, he posed the question to a newspaper interviewer as to why Shaik would be "in hiding" if there was nothing to hide.

Young has also been at the centre of an effort to prove that Shaik plagiarised an engineering thesis that earned him a doctorate from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in 2003.

Young says that in May 2002, Shaik left the employ of the government (where he headed arms procurement).

He changed his university registration from part-time to full-time and submitted a thesis six months later.

"That's an unusually short time to do the work required to get a doctorate," Young said yesterday.

Earlier this week Yunus Shaik said his brother Chippy was not in hiding over an alleged R21 million bribe by Thyssenkrupp, a German arms manufacturer.

"Facts have been presented in the media that Chippy has fled. Where to and from whom? The Scorpions haven't even phoned to say, 'We'd like to talk to you'," Yunus Shaik said.

He charged that the plagiarism allegations, appearing on the eve of Schabir Shaik's Constitutional Court challenge, and Schabir's surprise pre-dawn transfer from hospital back to Westville prison were part of a "victimisation" campaign.

With acknowledgement to Angela Quintal and Cape Argus.