Cape Town - The Democratic Alliance (DA) has asked National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka if he was investigating the African National Congress (ANC) and trade unions following various reports in Sweden of kickbacks paid as part of the arms deal.

There have been reports in Sweden of money being paid directly to political parties and trade unions in SA for influencing tenders in the controversial multibillion rand arms deal.

There were also radio news reports yesterday that a number of organisations in Sweden, including church organisation Diakonia, were now also calling for an inquiry into the Swedish end of the arms deal.

DA defence spokesman Hendrik Schmidt said yesterday that there were allegations that the ANC received $35m and the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) an undisclosed amount for backing SAAB's bid to supply Gripen jet fighters. He said the allegations were originally communicated by former ANC MP Andrew Feinstein.

"SAAB's statement that these allegations had been fully investigated by the (prosecutions authority) , the public protector and the auditor-general in their joint investigation seems inconsistent with the (investigations team) report issued. No mention appears to be made in the report of any investigation into the financial affairs of Numsa or the ANC," Schmidt said.

He said Numsa denied receiving money from the Swedish Metalworkers' Union.

With acknowledgements to Wyndham Hartley and the Business Day.