She and colleague Ka Plaatjie granted postponement after being summoned 

Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) MP Patricia de Lille and secretary-general Thami ka Plaatjie will not have to provide the names of high-ranking members of government involved in the controversial R43bn arms deal today despite being summoned to do so, says the PAC. 

The two were subpoenaed on Wednesday to appear before the three agencies probing the deal at 2pm today, but were granted a postponement yesterday.  

The deal is being investigated by the directorate for public prosecutions, the auditor-general and the public protector.  

Spokesman for the directorate for public prosecutions Sipho Ngwema said yesterday that De Lille and Ka Plaatjie had requested a postponement until early May so as to have time to consult lawyers.

Ngwema said the subpoenas had been served because De Lille and Ka Plaatjie had claimed to have information at their disposal about high-ranking African National Congress (ANC) members that would make them "fall". It was thought the information would assist investigators in their investigation, Ngwema said.  

Meanwhile, PAC president Stanley Mogoba claimed his party was being "victimised" and "vilified" by the ANC.  

Mogoba said yesterday De Lille had handed all the information at her disposal to the Heath special investigating unit in November 1999. The information was passed on to National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka in February this year.  

Mogoba challenged the investigators to subpoena other people who had been mentioned in the media like ANC chief Whip Tony Yengeni and the former defence minister, Joe Modise.  

Ngwema said people who were being investigated would be called to give evidence last, after the other witnesses had testified. This was the usual order of events in investigations, he said.  

De Lille, answering questions after delivering a talk at a UCT Graduate School of Business/Financial Mail function last night, says evidence of "political interference" in the official probe into the arms procurement package has caused her to lose confidence in the investigation.  

"What do they want from me? They already have all the documentation I had handed to the special investigative unit" (before its exclusion from the probe). She asked why she and her colleague had been subpoenaed only after they threatened to name people implicated in corruption related to the package.  

Ngwema denied the PAC was being victimised. He said De Lille and Ka Plaatjie had been subpoenaed because they said they had information which was relevant to the investigation.  

Mogoba stressed that the PAC would "not be revealing the identity of any person implicated in the arms deal in the near future". 

With acknowledgment to Taryn Lamberti, Alan Fine and Business Day.