A joint investigation by three state agencies has cleared the ANC government of President Thabo Mbeki of "any improper or unlawful conduct" in South Africa's controversial arms deal.
The 450-page report by the Auditor-General, the National Director of Public Prosecutions and the Public Protector, presented to Parliament yesterday, found there were "irregularities and improprieties" in the acquisition of sophisticated modern weaponry, including fighter aircraft, frigates and submarines.
However it concluded that "the conduct of certain officials of government departments cannot be ascribed to the President or the ministers (of Defence, Finance, Trade and Industry and Public Enterprise)".
That conclusion was immediately challenged by Ms Raenette Taljaard of the opposition Democratic Alliance. She argued that the president and the ministers were ultimately responsible for the conduct of government officials.
The arms deal, or the Strategic Defence Package as the government refers to it, has been a contentious issue for over a year for three broad reasons: the widely held belief that South Africa should not be spending huge sums of public money on arms in the face of the continuing poverty of large segments of the population; the concern at the escalating cost of the defence package which has more than doubled from R30-billion to R66-billion in the past two years, and recurring allegations that the process of arms procurement is contaminated by corruption.
One of the most damning criticisms in the report focused on Mr Shamin Shaik, Chief of Acquisitions in the Department of Defence. The investigation found there was a conflict of interest between his role in the procurement of arms and that of the financial stake of his brother, Mr Schabir Shaik, in two of the companies which benefited from the arms deal.
Another target of criticism was former defence minister and guerrilla army commander, Mr Joe Modise. He was found to be "involved in" a company which benefited from the arms deal and to have been "actively involved in the procurement process before he retired". Though the investigators found "no evidence of impropriety", the report recommended the government should take steps to prevent cabinet ministers from being involved in contracts concluded with the state "for a reasonable period after they leave public office".
The Minister of Defence, Mr Mosiuoa Lekota, accepted that the report had been critical of the procurement process but was emphatic the deal would be concluded. "There will be no further review," he said.
Tensions between the ruling and opposition parties in neighbouring Zimbabwe continued to rise, meanwhile, following the murder of a pro-government war veteran leader, Mr Cain Nkala. The government of President Robert Mugabe blamed the killing on the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
Mr Mugabe warned the opposition to stop engaging in "cowardly terrorist activities".
The movement's leader, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, countered that the government was trying to make his party a scapegoat for "acts of individuals". Its secretary-general, noting that none of those arrested had been allowed access to lawyers, voiced suspicions that two of the men had been "tortured into admitting something they did not do".