The Zuma affair and ongoing controversy over the arms deal reinforced the argument that political parties' funding sources should be made public, Idasa analyst Richard Calland said yesterday.

Calland, manager of Idasa's Right to Know programme, was speaking at a Cape Town Press Club lunch.

Idasa is about to launch a court bid to force the country's major political parties to disclose their funding sources. "I think the arms deal case, and now the Zuma case, illustrate ... how business and its hidden hand can operate in a way that taints and contaminates the public policy process," Calland said.

With acknowledgement to the Cape Times.