Billions of taxpayers' rands were poured into SA's armaments industry during apartheid.

Your columnist Ken Owen noted in 1995 that the evils of apartheid belonged to the civilian leaders; its insanities were entirely the property of the military officer class.

Afrikaner hegemony might have lasted another half century had the military theorists not diverted the national treasure into undertakings like Mossgas, Sasol, Armscor and Nufcor.

Denel inherited the manufacturing assets of Armscor. Its financial statements, audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers, have never been worth the paper that they were written on.

Nonetheless, Economists Allied For Arms Reduction-South Africa in 1994-95 offered the expertise of its overseas associates in converting the assets of Denel to peaceful purposes, and of recovering as much as possible of the public assets that had been expended on the industry.

About R4bn in public assets was tied up in Denel. Despite the inevitable obsolescence, the value of those assets would have been considerably greater than the R375m now paid by BAE Systems for a 30% shareholding.

The finance minister has been speaking out recently (Letters, May 17) about the public responsibilities of accountants.

Perhaps he should start with an inquiry into the role of PricewaterhouseCoopers, and its involvement in "whitewashing" last year's arms deal report.

PricewaterhouseCoopers-UK are auditors and consultants to BAE Systems. PricewaterhouseCoopers-USA are auditors and corporate consultants to Lockheed Martin. It is a relationship even more compromised than that of Enron and Andersen.

Terry Crawford-Browne Economists Allied For Arms Reduction SA

With acknowledgements to Terry Crawford-Browne and Business Day.