Pan Africanist Congress chief whip Patricia de Lille has apologised "the confusion that has been caused" by her party's unsubstantiated allegations which threatened that heads of five senior African National Congress members would roll by the end of this week in connection with the R43-billion arms-deal controversy. 

The PAC's comments were criticised by the treasury's director-general, Maria Ramos, who said the party's "unsubstantiated rumours" were linked to a fall in the value of the rand. 

"I apologise for the confusion that has been caused," De Lille replied when asked when the PAC would be revealing the names. "We will not be revealing the names of people mentioned in the documents. 

The PAC was fully prepared to co-operate with the investigation 

"Justice must be done. The matter must be investigated and they must be given a chance to respond to the allegations." 

De Lille and the PAC's secretary-general, Thami ka Plaatjie, were subpoenaed by the joint arms procurement investigating team on Wednesday. They were ordered to report to the offices of the Directorate of Public Prosecutions in Pretoria by 2pm on Thursday. 

They had to give evidence of irregularities in the arms deal and also had to hand over all relevant documents. This followed on PAC claims that it had evidence linking senior ANC officials to irregularities in the arms deal. 

But De Lille said that while the PAC was fully prepared to co-operate with the investigation, they had requested a postponement to a more convenient date. This had been granted and the two PAC members would appear on May 3 or 4, she said. 

Sipho Ngwema, spokesperson for National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka, confirmed that a postponement had been granted. 

It did not have irrefutable proof of wrongdoing 

At the PAC's weekend conference, De Lille said the name of a senior ANC MP linked to the deal would be made public soon and that the nation "would be shocked". 

Plaatjie said earlier this week that "before the end of this week some very senior members of this government will fall". Asked how many names the PAC had in its possession, Plaatjie said the number "does not exceed five". 

But the party later said it would not reveal the names and admitted it's decision not to reveal the information publicly was based on the fact it did not have irrefutable proof of wrongdoing. 

Meanwhile the ANC reacted magnanimously on Thursday when publicity chief, Smuts Ngonyama, said in response to De Lille's apology: "If she is really apologising we accept that as the ANC because, when a person has made a mistake or committed whatever error, the ANC never tramples over that person. We accept it unreservedly and hope Patricia and the PAC have learnt some lessons out of this." 

The PAC said in a statement earlier on Thursday that De Lille had handed over all information about alleged corruption in the arms deal to the Heath special investigative unit in November 1999. Ngcuka took possession of the same information in February this year. De Lille said later that the PAC would not be contesting the subpoena because she wanted to find out "what more do they want from us", since she had handed over all relevant information. 

De Lille said she did not possess any additional information about corruption in the arms deal. 

The joint arms procurement investigating team has also asked the Western Cape Director of Public Prosecutions, Frank Kahn, to consider prosecuting noseweek editor Martin Welz. He has not been subpoenaed. 

Kahn would not comment on the matter on Thursday, while Welz said he had still received no formal notification that he was being investigated. 

With acknowledgment to Andre Koopman and Independent Online.