Cape Town. The controversial multibillion rand arms deal will again come under the spotlight in Parliament today during a three-hour debate, which will once again pit the African National Congress (ANC) against opposition party MPs.

The ANC is expected to bring out its big guns for the debate, including cabinet ministers, but attempts to find out who the government speakers would be were unsuccessful as the party chose to keep its strategy under wraps.

Inkatha Freedom Party MP and former standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) chairman Gavin Woods, the Democratic Alliance's (DA's) Raenette Taljaard and the Pan Africanist Congress's Patricia de Lille are among the opposition MPs who will have their say.

The National Assembly will consider seven committee reports, completed late last year, on the investigation's findings.

The cost of the deal to buy fighter and trainer aircraft, submarines, corvettes and helicopters and the value of industrial participation offsets are expected to come under scrutiny.

The deal was originally valued at just under R30bn, but this has since increased to R53bn. Unofficial estimates put the figure much higher.

The government is expecting about R140bn in offset agreements from the deal, although this figure has been questioned.

Opposition parties are expected to accuse the executive of riding roughshod over Parliament and undermining the work of Scopa, the once powerful watchdog committee. The ANC, on the other hand, will want to put the matter to rest once and for all.

The arms deal was mired in allegations of irregularities and kickbacks, but the multi-agency probe found no evidence of "improper or unlawful conduct" by the government.

The probe split Scopa along party lines and led to the resignation of Woods in March. He was replaced by the NNP's Francois Beukman as chairman.

Woods was a vocal critic of the work done by the auditor-general, the public protector and the national directorate of public prosecutions

With acknowledgements to Sapa and Business Day.