ALTHOUGH government has been cleared of any corruption over the country's contentious multibillion rand arms deal, authorities will still seek to get to the root cause of the allegations.

At the same time, Deputy President Jacob Zuma suspects that there is a political agenda behind the hullabaloo surrounding the deal. "There is a political agenda to try to rubbish the names of the African National Congress leaders and government leadership."

He says this is more so because the purchasing of new weapons was done by a black government.

It was Pan Africanist Congress chief whip Patricia de Lille who sparked the avalanche of allegations of wrongdoing about the deal, resulting in a domino effect.

She stood in Parliament and waved a document purporting to contain names of African National Congress MP's who benefited from the arms deal. She claimed that she received the document from ANC MPs opposed to the deal.

Later, other political parties joined the fray.

Zuma rules out any possibility of a political agenda emanating from within the ANC ranks. "I am talking about other people who had webs naming every person, including the allegation that Thandi Modise, chairwoman of SA's parliamentary committee on defence, is a daughter (of the) late former defence minister Joe Modise".

He said that when the three agencies tasked with probing the allegations were announced the auditor-general, the public protector and the national director of public prosecutions they were met with fierce opposition.

Many were clamouring for former judge Willem Heath to be included in the probe. This was despite the fact that the Constitutional Court had ruled that a judge could not serve as head of the special investigation unit. "It created an impression that because these ones are black they cannot do a perfect job. You need a white judge."

Zuma believes the agencies did a sterling job. "If I were them, I would not have done the investigation the way they did."

This is simply because people who made the initial claims and allegations could not come forward to substantiate them.

Even when the report came, he says, the Democratic Party walked out of Parliament because the report exonerated government.

He laments the fact that the late Modise was investigated, tried and convicted even before the report came out.

On the arrest of former ANC chief whip, Tony Yengeni, Zuma seems baffled, because, he says, Yengeni was charged for "nothing to do with the arms deal (but), his buying of the car."

"I am still to find anyone who goes to a garage (dealer) and does not negotiate a discount."

Regarding his association with the two Shaik brothers Shabir and Chippy Zuma is not apologetic. Shabir is out on R1000 bail after the Scorpions raided his business and found confidential government documents. His brother, Chippy, who played a crucial role during the procurement process, was suspended from his position of chief of arms acquisition at the defence force. He is alleged to have passed inside information to people outside government without authority.

"I recruited Shabir into the struggle. They were involved in underground matters, very serious matters. I worked with them politically, militarily and in intelligence work."

He said the Shaiks saved many comrades. "They were one of the best in saving comrades here, they saved some of the Vula people.

"They (Shaiks) went to prison because of me. Anyone who has been investigating quietly, would suddenly come to know about it. It's not that we started knowing each other because there was an arms deal. In any case I was in the province, at that time. I was an MEC (in KwaZulu-Natal)."

Zuma says that although positive things were coming out of the deal such as the jobs created via offset packages not much is being said about them because people wanted to tell a negative story about government.

He says he was not aware of a movement within government agitating for the cancellation of the second batch of the R43bn arms deal, following repeated calls from various sectors of business and society.

Zuma says that while any government in the world would stand ready to take criticism, his was interested in the root cause of the allegations of corruption.

"You can't have a situation where government takes a decision about the security of the country, and then have people wanting to participate in it in every other way. They must go to the voters."

Zuma implies that SA needed a strong army to back its foreign policy. "If you are dealing with this continent, as it is, and you are a factor, and want to influence things, you cannot influence them with your hands. It is impossible. You have to show you have authority. You can move."