Cape Town – Pan African Congress MP Patricia de Lille has vowed not to participate in public hearings on South Africa's controversial multi-billion rand arms deal.

Speaking to reporters after a four-hour meeting with National Directorate of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) officials on Tuesday, De Lille said she had already given all the information in her possession to them.

However, she stressed that she had not revealed her sources.

The NDPP should now share that information with the other agencies involved in the probe into the arms deal - the Public Protector and Auditor General.

De Lille said she had handed over all documentation on the deal to the special investigating unit, which had then passed it on to the NDPP on February 6.

NDPP investigator Gerda Ferreira had on Tuesday taken her through all the documentation to seek clarification on certain points.

De Lille believed she had now performed her responsibility and it was up to the agencies to investigate the allegations.

She would therefore not attend proposed public hearings - expected to begin on May 28 - if requested to.

Won't be part of 'side-show'

"I want to say here now categorically, I will not go... I will definitely not be part of that side-show."

No-one had been able to explain the objectives and purpose of the public hearings.

"I am not convinced that it is necessary at all, except that they (the investigating team) want to create a platform whereby the people who are implicated in the arms deal scandal will have a platform to publicly come and dismiss whatever allegations have been made against them.

"That's the only explanation I can think of."

The government could not even protect ordinary witnesses in its witness protection programmes, and yet they now wanted more people to expose themselves in the public arena, she said.

De Lille, along with the party's secretary-general Thami ka Plaatjie, first met with investigator Gerda Ferreira in a marathon five-hour meeting on May 3.

De Lille said after that meeting she wanted assurances from the investigating team that she would not be forced to disclose her sources about alleged corruption in the arms deal.

The joint arms procurement investigating team alleged last month that she was not sharing information with investigators and was interfering with the official probe by making unsubstantiated claims in the media.

Repeatedly claimed irregularities

De Lille has repeatedly claimed irregularities in the arms deal, involving senior African National Congress (ANC) members and gave her information to corruption-buster Judge Willem Heath, whose special investigation unit was later controversially excluded from the multi-agency probe into the deal.

Following Sunday Times newspaper articles in April suggesting ANC Chief Whip Tony Yengeni had received a luxury vehicle as a kickback from a company involved in the arms deal, she also claimed another senior ANC member would soon be exposed by the media. 

With acknowledgment to Sapa and News24.