South Africa - and Cape Town in particular - has become a safe haven for German fugitives allegedly involved in huge scams, including a former German defence official who diverted to Saudi Arabia a fleet of 38 tanks ordered by the German Army.

Peninsula police, working with German consular officials, said the fugitives had cottoned on to how to manipulate our justice system.

They had evidence of several wanted Germans living in South African cities - including two linked to Jurgen Harksen.

According to special task team investigator Dietmar Kuhberger and a member of the German Consulate, they are apparently hiding in the city partly because they enjoy the climate and scenery.

German investigators say they traced bribe money to a Swiss bank account

Topping the list in Cape Town is former German Ministry of Defence secretary Ludwig-Holger Pfahls, who is alleged to have accepted a DM3,8-million (about R19-million) bribe to divert 38 army tanks built for the German armed forces to Saudi Arabia in 1991.

According to police, at the time the German tank maker was battling to meet a tight delivery deadline for new tanks set by Saudi Arabia, so Pfahls allegedly arranged to make the switch.

German investigators say they traced bribe money to a Swiss bank account in Zurich.

Pfahls, 60, apparently lives on the Atlantic seaboard and has been seen driving a black Mercedes-Benz.

German police have posted a DM10 000 reward for information leading to his arrest. Pretended to have a doctorate from a SA university

An international warrant for Pfahls' arrest has been issued on charges of bribery and tax evasion.

On Tuesday, another German, Erwin Heldmann, who absconded during a three-year jail sentence on 39 convictions of diamond-related fraud totalling about R2.5 million, was arrested in Sea Point.

He was let out on a weekend pass three months into his sentence in August 1999, but failed to return. Heldmann - who has been linked to Pfahls - fled to Cape Town in August 1999 and obtained a false identity book in the Peninsula.

Immigration authorities detained him in March under the Illegal Aliens Act, but he was mysteriously released after a High Court hearing.

In 1997, Cape Town police arrested German fugitive Uwe Dolb in his plush Granger Bay flat.

At the time Dolb, accused of fraud totalling millions of marks, was No 2 on the list of most wanted white-collar criminals in Germany - with Harksen at No 1.

At his extradition hearing he testified that he knew and had contact with Harksen.

German consulate staff from Pretoria arrived here this week after the Harksen investigators broadened their focus to other German fugitives in the city, including:

Andreas Lipinski, 34, who skipped here in 1999 after he was sentenced to jail in Germany for 15 offences, including software piracy, assault, fraud and two housebreakings in which computer equipment worth more than R1.6m was stolen.

A man operating a successful business in the Peninsula who is wanted in Germany for several counts of fraud in the mid-1990s - police withheld his name due to the sensitivity of their probe.

This suspect allegedly imported to South Africa video surveillance equipment from a German company but failed to pay for it. He is also accused of defrauding a bank of DM125 000 and fraudulently cashing 33 Eurocheques in Australia.

He also allegedly lied about being robbed of video cameras in Lesotho in 1995, lodging claims with the European travel baggage insurance authority, which investigated and dismissed his claims.

He also allegedly pretended to have a doctorate from a South African university, but no record could be found.

With acknowledgement to The Argus.