Johannesburg (Sapa) - United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa called on Sunday for all cars obtained for VIPs by the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) to be impounded pending the end of the arms investigation. 

He said that the investigative units involved should confiscate the vehicles and if it was found that there had been no corruption they could be returned. 

Holomisa was responding to a statement released over the weekend by EADS, the arms company embroiled in the controversy over ANC chief whip Tony Yengeni's luxury Mercedes 4X4. 

The company has said that it helped a number of politicians get vehicles over the past three years. In a statement issued at the weekend, EADS said that it had "rendered assistance" to about 30 VIPs in obtaining vehicles. 

The VIPs were in the civil airlines, defence, electronic and related industries, diplomatic and political fields, the statement said. 

The statement by EADS coincided with an admission from a former EADS executive in the Sunday Times that a Mercedes also went through the company to Yengeni's wife Lumka, who works for arms manufacturer Denel. 

The EADS announcement follows speculation that Yengeni's vehicle could have been part of a bid by the company to ensure a stake in South Africa's R43 billion arms deal. 

Yengeni, who has denied any suggestion of impropriety, on Friday filed a document - not made public - with parliament's ethics committee in reply to a formal charge that he failed to disclose the Mercedes as an asset. 

The entire arms deal, plus the Yengeni Mercedes, are being probed by investigators from the offices of the auditor general, the public protector, and national director of public prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka.

Ngcuka told journalists last week that at this stage it looked as though there might be some criminal prosecutions. 

It was reported last month that Yengeni started paying instalments on the vehicle only seven months after it was registered and only after rumours in parliament that he had acquired the vehicle as a gift.

EADS said that it was submitting all information at its disposal to the authorities. 

The company, which is linked to Mercedes Benz manufacturer DaimlerChrysler, said that the "assistance" it gave to the VIPs getting cars included price discounts and speeding up delivery ahead of waiting lists.

The Sunday Times also reported that the R180 000 silver Mercedes C180 belonging to Yengeni's wife was also channelled through EADS. 

The newspaper said a former manager at EADS, Michael Helbing, told it that the company's managing director, Michael Woerfel, instructed him to order a car that was registered in the name of Mrs Yengeni on January 3 this year. 

"I don't question orders from Woerfel," Helbing was quoted as saying. "If he tells me to do something, I just do it." 

EADS has a 33% stake in Reutech radar Systems, a Stellenbosch-based company that secured a R220 million contract to provide radar for four corvettes.

The company is also a joint venture between DaimlerChrysler Aerospace and two European companies, one of which won a R200 million contract to supply Exocet missiles for the corvettes. 

Neither EADS nor Daimler-Chrysler could be reached for comment on Sunday, while Yengeni's spokesman Dennis Cruywagen said that the chief whip would not comment. 

DA calls for a transnational boundary investigation 

Democratic Alliance (DA) public accounts spokesman Raenette Taljaard said that EADS' admission highlighted the need for enough time for a proper transnational probe. 

"While no one wishes to see an open-ended inquiry, the investigation by its very nature must cut across national boundaries and involve cooperation with other investigative agencies in the countries of key suppliers in the strategic defence package," she said. 

Ngcuka's statement last week that he hoped investigations would be complete by July gave the impression that complex leads could be shortcircuited, Taljaard said. 

Ngcuka said that about 30 investigators were working on the case full-time. They had requested bank account records of 24 individuals, accounts and statutory records of 68 "entities" and the records belonging to three auditing firms. 

Newspapers in the Nasionale Pers group reported on Sunday that ANC MP for Crossroads Mnyamazeli Booi said that he had been offered a R1 million bribe in connection with the arms deal, but had turned it down. 

He said he had reported the incident to the office of President Thabo Mbeki. 

In another related development, the auditor general has said that the minister of water affairs and forestry, Ronnie Kasrils, is not under investigation in connection with the arms deal. 

Auditor General Shauket Fakie said this in a letter to Kasrils' lawyers released on Sunday. 

"The head of the joint investigating team wishes to confirm that at this point in time we do not have any allegations against Kasrils therefore no investigation is currently taking place on him," Fakie said in a letter to Kasrils' attorney Caroline Nicholls dated April 6. 

This followed recent media reports that Kasrils, a former deputy minister of defence, was one of those under investigation. 

With acknowledgment to Sapa and WOZA.