South African President Thabo Mbeki has not ruled out appointing a special investigator to look into a controversial 43 billion Rand ($5. 5 billion) arms deal, a presidential adviser said on Thursday. The government has come under increasing criticism in recent weeks for its perceived efforts to obstruct the investigation into the deal and for Mbeki's refusal to allow a special investigating unit headed by Judge Willem Heath participate in the probe. Mbeki based his exclusion of Heath's unit on a recent Constitutional Court judgment saying the anti- corruption unit could not be headed by a judge. However, Mbeki would consider allowing a new special investigating unit to look into the arms deal if sufficient evidence of wrongdoing is proven, p residential legal advisor Mojanku Gumbi told reporters in Pretoria. The scandal over possible irregularities in the arms contracts and allegations some ruling party officials received kickbacks has threatened to damage South Africa's international image, opposition lawmakers and business analysts say.

And now the government agrees

Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota says the image that government is stealing from the people can be to the detriment of foreign investment and the future economic well being of the country. Addressing members of the SA National Editor's Forum in Durban, Lekota said allegations that there had been irregularities in the R43-billion arms procurement deal had made government "very anxious". "No-one will invest in a country who is perceived as essentially corrupt. "

The investigation begins

The senior civil servant in President Thabo Mbeki's office says the probe into alleged irregularities with the country's R43-billion arms acquisition programme has started. Frank Chikane says the Auditor General, the Public protector and the Department of Justice's Investigating Directorate Serious economic Offences have begun a preliminary investigation into the deal. 

With acknowledgement to Leon Engelbrecht and Defence Systems Daily.