South Africa's Department of Defence today applied for a week's postponement of the public hearings to look into alleged corruption in a $5.5 billion arms procurement deal.
Legal counsel for the department asked the presiding panel, chaired by South Africa's Public Protector Mr Selby Baqwa, to postpone the hearing due to its complicated nature.
Department attorneys told Mr Baqwa they needed more time to prepare for the hearing. The panel is looking into allegations of wrongdoing in the awarding of arms contracts, under which South Africa will buy aircraft, ships and weapons from Swedish, German, British, French and Italian manufacturers.
Two television stations, free-to-air e-tv and public broadcaster SABC, have filed applications to broadcast the proceedings.
Mr Gilbert Marcus, senior counsel for e-tv, asked that the station be allowed to broadcast the hearings either live or on time delay.
This would be in the interest of accountability and openness, he said.
"The sheer magnitude of the amounts involved is of enormous concern in a country where there are other claims on the public purse," Mr Marcus said.
The hearings are set to last two months.
AFP