Public protector Thulisile Madonsela has handed a report on President Jacob Zuma's failure to meet the deadline to declare his interests to both the Presidency and the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), the party said on Thursday.

DA Parliamentary leader Athol Trollip said that he could not reveal Madonsela's finding as she had made "special requests on how we deal with the information".

The DA was taking legal advice on both this and the actual outcome of the investigation, Trollip said.

He added that Madonsela handed her report to the party shortly before midnight on Wednesday, the extended deadline for doing so after she requested an extra fortnight to mull over the matter.

By law, Zuma had to declare his interests within 60 days of taking office, but he missed the deadline by eight months and did so only after the press pointed out the oversight.

The DA then asked the public protector to investigate the matter.

Trollip said that the party had objected to Madonsela's report going to Zuma, arguing that this was anomalous and that an exception should be made to allow Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe to deal with the matter instead.

"But the law is very clear that any complaint about a Cabinet member should go to the President," he said.

The spokesperson for the public protector, Kgalalelo Masibi, said that the investigation was done not in terms of the Executive Members Ethics Act and not of the Public Protector Act.

Different rules therefore applied to making the outcome public.