A Democratic Alliance plan to lay criminal charges against Gauteng premier Paul Mashatile is a "publicity stunt", his office said on Monday.

"We would like to reiterate that we respect the law and will co-operate with any investigation by law enforcement agencies," said spokesman Simon Zwane.

"However, we believe that the laying of the complaint is a publicity stunt by the DA intended to divert attention from the state of the province address delivered by Premier Mashatile this morning."

This was after DA leader in the Gauteng legislature Jack Bloom said he would lay a criminal complaint against Mashatile for failing to report attempted fraud by embattled ANC spokesman Carl Niehaus.

Zwane said there was never an attempt to cover-up the forging of signatures by Niehaus of senior Gauteng officials, including Mashatile's, while the former ANC spokesman was at the helm of the Gauteng Economic Development Agency (Geda).

The letter was an attempt to secure a loan from a businessman who had wanted favourable conditions related to Johannesburg property deals.

"The truth of the matter is that there was never an attempt at any given time to cover up the forging of signatures by Mr Carl Niehaus.

"The matter was attended to immediately after it was discovered and Mr Niehaus resigned from his position at the Geda, soon after being confronted with evidence of wrongdoing on his part.

"It is a well-known fact that the intended victim of Mr Niehaus' action was a private company and not the state or any of its agencies.

"The government did not suffer any loss as a result of Mr Niehaus' action," Zwane said.

Bloom's complaint would centre around Mashatile's failure to report the attempted fraud. Mashatile was the provincial finance MEC at the time.

He said Mashatile would be charged with obstructing justice and with failing to report corruption in terms of Section 34 of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act which makes it an offence not to report a corrupt act to the police.