It is easy to point fingers and journalists are often the first to do so. But I have been really moved by what we might call the "plight" of the Shaik family in the wake of the arms deal report. Brother Shabir, the businessman whose company indirectly got a contract, has been arrested and bailed. Brother Chippy, the defence force's chief arms buyer, has been suspended.

But there is another Shaik you may have forgotten and who I remember liking. Mo Shaik is currently our ambassador to Algeria (what did he do to deserve it?).Before this, Mo was an intelligence officer with the National Intelligence Agency and before that he was consul-general in Hamburg, Germany.

Huh? Yep. Mo was running SA's representation in the city where the frigates his one brother (Shabir) got into trouble subcontracting for were being built and which his other brother (Chippy) ordered. And he was there at the critical time (July 1997 to March 1999)

My point though is about families. The Shaiks were up to their necks in the secret struggle against apartheid and they earned the respect, friendship and confidence of many people now at the centre of government. Furthermore, the Shaiks are a close family. Mo once introduced me to Shabir and it was clear he adored his younger brother.

What happens to families who come under the kind of pressure the Shaiks are under? Do they fall apart?

I hope not. I hope the Shaiks get through, with honour and courage, what must now be done. No breaking old confidences and no excuses. Chippy and Shabir, it seems to me, got caught up in deal so large they forgot themselves. It can happen and there is nothing so seducing as the arms trade.

But close and clever families like the Shaiks are good for SA and I hope they all soon make creative and profitable lives away from weapons and government.

With acknowledgement to Peter Bruce and Business Day.