Cape Town - The immediate issue following Friday's arrest of Shabir Shaik for possession of classified government documents, was, "Where did he get them?", said Andrew Feinstien, former ANC representative on Parliament's watchdog public accounts committee, Scopa.

Shaik, a bidding contractor in the multi-billion rand arms procurement deal, was arrested in Durban on Friday morning by members of the Directorate of Special Operations (Scorpions).

National Director of Public Prosecutions spokesperson Sipho Ngwema, said Shaik was allegedly in possession of Cabinet minutes in which the arms procurement was discussed, and also correspondence between the departments of Public Enterprises and Defence.

He said Shaik was a bidding contractor, competing with other contenders, yet he had inside information.

"He must explain that in court."

Asked how Shaik might have obtained the documents, Ngwema said: "I don't know, but you know and I know that his brother is in the Defence Department."

Shaik's brother Shamin "Chippy" Shaik is the head of acquisitions in the Department of Defence.

Feinstein told Sapa from London that Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin had been one of those to give evidence on the deal before Scopa early this year.

'Conflict of interest had been dealth with'

Erwin had said at the time, among other things, government was aware of a conflict of interest regarding Chippy Shaik, but that the matter had "been dealt with appropriately".

"Does he still believe that?" Feinstein said.

Turning to the joint investigation team's report on its probe into the deal - tabled in Parliament on Thursday - Feinstein said there were "huge contradictions between some of the findings and the final conclusion".

It was impossible to say whether the procurement process had been flawed or not, as according to the report itself, the main allegations of corruption were still under investigation.

So, to say, as some Cabinet ministers did on Thursday, that all questions had been laid to rest, was "frankly nonsense", Feinstein said.

Only once the whole investigation was completed, and the reasons had been given on why individuals were prosecuted or not, would "we know the full story".

Thus, "we will only know at the conclusion of the investigations if the primary contracts are secure or not".

Another key question which remained unanswered, was whether Cabinet had been "upfront" with the public about the true costs of the arms deal, he said.

Feinstein was demoted in February by the ANC, when he was removed as head of its study group on public accounts because his views on the proposed multi-agency probe into the arms deal were not in line with the party's thinking.

He was replaced by the party's deputy chief whip, Geoff Doidge. Feinstein led the ANC's support in the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) for former judge Willem Heath's Special Investigating Unit to be part of the multi-agency investigation into the arms deal.

Heath has since been ousted from that position by a Constitutional Court ruling and the arms deal was investigated by the Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka, the Auditor-General Shauket Fakie and the Public Protector Selby Baqwa.