Pretoria - Trade and Industry minister Alec Erwin is expected to testify before a public hearing in Pretoria into the country's multi-billion rand strategic arms acquisition programme on Tuesday.

Erwin has previously vociferously defended the programme against criticism from the media, from Parliament's watchdog public accounts committee and from opposition politicians.

The hearing adjourned on Thursday last week after retired SA Air Force chief, Lieutenant General Willem Hechter and retired SA Navy commander, Vice Admiral Robert Simpson-Anderson, gave testimony on the process that led to a set of contracts to acquire four corvettes, three submarines, 30 light helicopters, 24 Hawk lead-in fighter trainers and 28 Gripen advanced light fighter aircraft.

The hearing got underway on Tuesday after a short session on Monday, during which the hearing chairman, Public Protector Selby Baqwa, decided to exclude the electronic media.

His decision is being opposed

The first witness, Rear-Admiral (Junior Grade) Keg Verster testified that the Department of Defence (DoD) in the late 1990's lacked the capacity to handle deals such as the deal under scrutiny effectively.

Jayendra Naidoo, who headed government's negotiations team, on Wednesday gave evidence about alleged conflicts of interest involving Departmental Acquisitions and Procurement Division chief "Chippy" Shaik.

Naidoo said Shaik told him early in the process that his brother Shabir Shaik was a director of African Defence Systems (ADS).

This information was also conveyed to the ministers of Defence and of Trade and Industry.

Shaik's family link to ADS - a subsidiary of Thales, previously Thomson-CSF - was not thought to be a problem, Naidoo said.

Senior Armscor manager Dawid Griesel earlier on Wednesday told Baqwa that there had been little room for bias or manipulation in the way in which the prime contractors were selected.

Armscor is the DoD's acquisitions agency

Griesel said several teams had worked independently from one another in an intricate evaluation system.

On Friday Business Day reported that only a fraction of the "startling allegations of corruption" being probed by investigators would see the "light of day" during the public hearing phase.

The paper reported a source had said a key intention of the hearing was that its public impact should be "constructive" and "healing".

It said a document listing the 43 specific allegations received by investigators showed that only three were intended to be raised at the hearing.

With acknowledgment to Sapa and News24.