The Nelson Mandela Children's Fund and fiery opposition MP Patricia de Lille are headed for a clash after the fund said De Lille's claims that it had received R500 000 from a controversial arms deal company were false.

However, De Lille, who is a trustee of the NMCF, has stuck to her guns and refused to accept the finding.

"I stand by what I said in Parliament. I still love and re-spect Madiba, and this is not a reflection on him at all," De Lille told the Cape Argus.

However, she refused to answer questions on the source of her allegations or whether she had raised the matter with the NMCF board of trustees before making the allegation in Parliament recently.

De Lille referred all further questions on the matter to the Children's Fund.

De Lille stunned and angered fellow MPs at the beginning of November when she announced in Parliament that German arms manufacturer Thyssen Krupp Marine Systems (TKMS) had in 1999 given the Children's Fund, the ANC and Community Development Foundation (CDF) R500 000.

The German multinational won a tender to supply South Africa with four corvettes during 1999.

Opposition parties have consistently alleged that those companies which won the right to re-equip the country's ageing military in the late 1990s, paid bribes to the ANC, individuals in the ruling party or its associated organisations.

De Lille told Parliament that the funds given to the ANC, NMCF and CDF had allegedly been deposited into an account at the Credit Swiss First Boston Bank in Switzerland.

The claim particularly angered Defence Minister Mosiua Lekota, who accused De Lille of abusing parliamentary privilege to insinuate that "Mandela was a crook".

In an exclusive interview with the Cape Argus, NMCF chief executive Sibongile Mkhabela said investigations into the matter had proved that the allegations were not true.

"The approach we took was to first check if there is anything with Thyssen Krupp. Of course we talked to a few individuals, including Patricia, not as a member of the board of trustees. We have come to the conclusion that we did not receive any funds from Thyssen Krupp," she said.

Mkhabela said De Lille had never raised the matter of the alleged funding by Thyssen Krupp in meetings of the board of trustees.

The investigation was conducted by the NMCF's board of trustees.

In a statement issued two weeks ago, the board said it would meet De Lille to "shed more light on the matter".

Asked whether the board would take action against De Lille for making false statements against an organisation of which she was a trustee, Mkhabela said it was an issue on which the chairman, Dikgang Moseneke, had to decide.

"What happens to Patricia is a question that the board would have to discuss.

"We have not taken a view as yet," Mkhabela said.

The ANC and CDF have also denied receiving funding from Thyssen Krupp.

With acknowledgements to Thabo Mabaso and Cape Argus.