Cape Town - A divided house has accepted reports by parliamentary committees on Tuesday which concur that the government was innocent of corruption in awarding multibillion-rand arms contracts.

The African National Congress made sure through its majority vote that the reports regarding the investigation by the auditor-general, the public protector and the national prosecution authority about arms purchases of more than R60bn were accepted.

All opposition parties, except the Inkatha Freedom Party - which abstained from voting - and the New National Party, had opposed the arms report and the evaluations by several parliamentary committees.

Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin said it was untrue the arms purchases had displaced money for social expenditure in the national budget.

Regarding criticism that the counter-trade guarantees would not materialise, Erwin said additional legal advice indicated that the contractual obligations "are as effective as we can get. These correspond with the best international practice".

He said the agencies' investigations had led to the department enhancing purchase procedures and the prevention of clashes of interest.

Job opportunities over 15 years

The reason why certain contracts were preferred to others, related to changing market conditions, said Erwin.

Rob Davies, chairperson of the trade and industry parliamentary committee, said the weapons deal would never have created 65 000 jobs at one time. It was direct and indirect job opportunities which would have been created over a time span of 15 years.

The Democratic Alliance, United Democratic Movement, African Christian Democratic Party, Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania and the Freedom Front said parliament had failed in its constitutional duty of overseeing executive powers, due to pressure and intimidation from the cabinet.

DA MP Raenette Taljaard said: "The government has failed the test of transparency and the constitutional requirement of accountability. Even worse, it has flunked the integrity test."

Dr Gavin Woods, IFP MP and former chairperson of the standing committee on public accounts, described the arms transaction as one of the state's "greatest and most controversial expenditures".

Woods, who resigned from the standing committee as a result of sustained political pressure and in-fighting about the arms deal, said every aspect of the deal was disappointing: the joint investigation, the stipulations in purchasing contracts, counter-trade agreements and the process of monitoring these.

"Why did parliament so passively allow almost R60bn to be spent on military wares while people were suffering because of hunger and poverty?" he asked.

With acknowledgements to Adrian Lackay, Christi van der Westhuizen and Beeld.