Justice Minister Penuell Maduna has challenged critics of the investigation into the arms deal either to produce their own evidence of corruption or shut up.

He slammed criticism of the report as racist.

The report, by the three agencies investigating allegations of corruption in the multibillion-rand arms deal, effectively cleared the government of corruption.

While the agencies found conflicts of interest and allegedly corrupt behaviour by some individuals in government departments and by former African National Congress chief whip Tony Yengeni, their investigations showed no evidence existed that indicated the deals themselves were corrupt.

In a strongly worded statement issued by his spokesperson, Maduna attacked opposition parties which stated that the report was a whitewash. He said: "It would appear indeed that all these individuals are motivated by the whole misperception that everything worked upon by black people should not be trusted or accepted right away.

"Indeed their criticism in this regard smacks of racism. As a matter of fact, these are the very same individuals and parties who early this year were advocating for the inclusion of the former head of the Special Investigating Unit, Willem Heath, into the investigations. It is publicly known that the heads of these three agencies are black. Now one wonders whether the report would have been acceptable to them or how they were going to react if Willem Health was involved."

Apparently in reference to PAC MP Patricia de Lille, who first raised allegations of corruption, Maduna said: "Some of these individuals claimed to be in (possession) of names of people in government who benefited directly from the deal." However, "they failed dismally to come forward".

On Heath's exclusion, Maduna said: "The president reported to the country early this year on why the so-called Heath unit could not be part of the investigations."

With acknowledgement to Marvin Meintjies, The Star and Independent Online.