Controversial former high- ranking civil servant Chippy Shaik is selling his Johannesburg home, a move that has fuelled suspicion that he plans to move to Australia.

Shaik, who was recently stripped of a doctorate and implicated in corruption in the controversial multibillion-rand arms deal, has put his Fourways home, north of Johannesburg, on the market.

Several fruitless attempts were made to get comment from Shaik at his homes in Fourways and Virginia in Durban.

On Friday, his brother, Mo, said the sale was a private matter.

"He (Chippy) is managing bond issues and wants to concentrate on servicing the bond of his house in Durban," he said.

Asked whether Chippy Shaik would also be selling his Durban home, he said his brother had no plans to sell the house.

Shaik's other brother and attorney, Yunis, demanded that the Sunday Times leave his brother alone.

"There's a Constitution that says we shouldn't invade people's privacy ... what is the relevance?" he said.

Yunis later said that his brother had moved to Durban and no longer needed his Johannesburg residence.

In May last year, Chippy Shaik revealed to a weekend newspaper that he was moving with his wife and children to Australia.

This report in The Weekender newspaper came a week after a Sunday Times exposé revealed that he had plagiarised his doctoral thesis.

Shaik bought the 1 518m² property in the security-boomed street for R435 000 while he was the Department of Defence's chief of procurement, in 1999.

The three-bedroom house, which now boasts a R1.8-million price tag, features three reception rooms, a large, modern kitchen with granite tops, plus a swimming pool and a double garage.

Deeds records show that while the average price for a home in Fourways is about R1.3-million, homes in Shaik's Jacana Street average around R1.8-million.

Two weeks ago, the University of KwaZulu-Natal stripped Shaik of his 2003 doctorate in mechanical engineering following a forensic investigation which found that he had plagiarised his thesis.

It found that Shaik had copied the work of five international professors for his 217-page work.

He had had the work, published by professors VG Piskunov and Viktor Verijenko, translated from Russian into English.

With acknowledgements to Simpiwe Piliso and The Times.