The long-awaited arms deal report was at the government printers in Cape Town on Tuesday, ahead of its tabling in parliament this week.

It will be up to National Assembly Speaker Frene Ginwala to decide when to make the report public, although Parliament rises for the year on November 16.

Auditor-General Shauket Fakie was due to fly to Cape Town on Tuesday afternoon, but was unable to say when he would submit the report to Ginwala.

"I don't know how far the printers are," he said. The report is more than 250 pages long.

'Very little will stop it from being tabled on Thursday'

Dr Gavin Woods, the chairman of Parliament's standing committee on public accounts (Scopa), said the printing was just about complete.

"It seems very little will stop it from being tabled by Thursday."

Woods said there was still a degree of uncertainty about when his committee would sit to deal with the report. Although an agenda had been agreed to in principle at a committee meeting last week, some concerns about the dates had been raised at Tuesday's meeting.

The committee was likely to meet for an hour on Wednesday or Friday for an initial meeting on the report, and would meet again on November 21 to confirm the dates for the public hearings on it.

Hopefully these would still occur on December 5 and 6, Woods said.

Agencies and state departments asked to be on standby

The various investigating agencies involved in the probe and relevant government departments had been asked to be on standby.

The National Assembly's trade and industry, finance, defence and ethics committees are also expected to look into issues in the report.

The auditor-general is leading the forensic side of the probe into the controversial deal. The public protector and the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions are also investigating. - Sapa

Ian Pierce

Hanti Otto reports that the case against an accountant arrested in connection with the arms deal hearings was withdrawn in the Pretoria magistrate's court on Tuesday.

Ian Pierce, 43, was arrested on September 28 for allegedly contravening the National Prosecution Authority Act.
Pierce was arrested by members of the Scorpions police unit when he allegedly failed to respond to a summons.

The case was earlier postponed to Tuesday and transferred to the regional court for plea and trial, but the prosecutor said the docket was not at court. No reasons were given to her for the absence of the docket, and she asked the court for a postponement. However, magistrate J C Kruger refused to postpone the case. The state then withdrew the charges against Pierce.

His legal representative, David Feldman, earlier said Pierce, as an accountant at Futuristic Business Solutions, had previously received a summons and had co-operated fully with the investigators, handing them all the documents and information they required.

"He did not receive any further requests for documents, summons or a subpoena. Apparently such a document was served on an employee at his firm and not given to him," the attorney stated.

With acknowledgement to Sapa, Hanti Otto, The Star and Independent Online.