President Thabo Mbeki took aim yesterday at those behind allegations of corruption in government, delivering a thinly veiled warning that they should not "start a fire they cannot put out".

Mbeki's warning to those who perpetuate racial stereotypes of Africans as corrupt comes on the back of a raft of allegations about changes to the Joint Task Team report on corruption in the R60bn arms deal. The latest report suggests that government was involved in a funding deal for a sub-contractor after it earlier insisted it had relationships only with prime contractors.

During presidential question time in the National Assembly yesterday, Mbeki picked up on a theme he began in his letter in ANC Today last Friday, when he attacked journalists reporting on the arms deal for perpetuating the racial stereotype.

Yesterday he turned his attention to opposition criticism of government. "It seems clear to me that as we approach our general elections next year, some in our country have decided that to achieve their political objectives, they must fall back on the projection of the African stereotype that the civilised' have used for half a millennium, to justify and legitimise their sustained violence against the very soul of the Africans.

"And so every day, the civilised' discover acts of corruption' committed by our government. In this regard, the truth does not matter. Indeed, in many instances, the truth serves as an obstacle to the objectives that some in our country seek to achieve, at all costs. What is critical for them is that the negative African stereotype of the past and the present must be sustained, to secure the votes of those who still fear die swart gevaar'.

"I would like to advise those who find it politically and strategically expedient to perpetuate the negative stereotype of the African, which we inherited from our past, to take the greatest care that they do not start a fire they cannot put out. But we too, the Africans, share a similar responsibility not to start fires that we cannot put out."

Democratic Alliance MP Raenette Taljaard kept up the pressure yesterday, saying the "latest revelations on the arms deal" had destroyed the artificial distinction government had drawn between prime contractors and sub-contractors in the arms deal. " It has now emerged that Thomson CSF (Thales) and their SA counterparts ADS the Shaik connection are directly linked to a loan agreement signed by the SA government with Société Générale of France to fund the procurement of the controversial combat suite for the SA Navy's new corvettes," she said. "If Thomson CSF (Thales)/ADS were a mere subcontractor, there would be no reason for the government to facilitate and sign a loan agreement of this nature. The contract would be between the German Frigate Consortium and Thomson CSF (Thales)/ ADS."

Taljaard said that in the light of the allegations, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel should release the details of the financing agreements in the arms deal and explain why government undertook a loan agreement for a sub-contractor.

With acknowledgement to Wyndham Hartley and the Business Day.