Economists Allied for Arms Reduction (Ecaar) are asking the Cape High Court for an urgent interdict against the government's plans to buy millions of rand of new military planes.

Ecaar SA head Terry Crawford-Browne was approaching the court this morning to restrain the government from going ahead with signing and concluding supply contracts for the supply of six or eight A400M Airbus aircraft on the basis that it was constitutionally unlawful.

Crawford-Browne said in an eight-page affidavit handed in with the interdict application that he was bringing it in the public interest and "on behalf of poor people". He said it was evident from media reports that tender processes had not been complied with as required by the constitution.

Since the surprise announcement by the Transport Department on Thursday, the plan to buy the aircraft at up to R8 billion has caused a stir. On Friday the DA asked for the deal to be suspended pending parliamentary scrutiny.

Crawford-Browne said the reason for his court application was the "negative economic impacts of expenditures on armaments" and that the motivation for it did not meet "the stipulation that government procurements must be conducted in accordance with a system which is fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost-effective".

His application is also directed at the ministers of Transport, Public Enterprises and Defence.

He said this was particularly evident in the off-sets, which he said did not meet the constitutional requirement that government procurements had to be competitive and cost-effective.

"Recent testimony in parliament by the secretary of defence and senior generals revealed that the SANDF is in financial crisis because of the costs of the arms deal and consequently cannot afford to maintain even its existing equipment," he said. "Even more bizarre is the acknowledgement of an equipment mismatch, and that the arms deal acquisitions are quite useless for the SANDF's peacekeeping roles in countries such as Burundi.

"It is this reality and the irrationally fallacious pretensions of economic benefits from offsets that motivates the purchase of the Airbus A400M aircraft from European Aeronautical and Defence Systems (EADS) and Airbus Military."

Crawford-Browne has so far made several attempts to have the original arms deal cancelled, which have all been dismissed by the courts.

Yesterday, the DA's trade and industry spokesman, Dr Enyinna Nkem Abonta, said the intended new acquisitions "raised three important questions" about procurement.

"Has the government followed the procurement policy recommended in the Joint Investigative Team's (JIT) report on the first arms deal?" Nkem Abonta asked. He also wanted to know whether the Treasury had made allowances for the impact of the procurement on the current account and whether the Industrial Participation Control Committee had approved the Industrial Participation component of the latest deal.

Earlier the DA called for the deal's suspension until parliament could convene a meeting of its Defence Committee "to address critical questions".

With acknowledgements to Christelle Terreblanche and the Cape Argus.