Terry Crawford-Browne, the former banker facing almost R1-million in legal costs for previous court attacks on the government's arms deal, has fired another double-barrelled assault, accusing Finance Minister Trevor Manuel of perjury.

Crawford-Browne has lodged a complaint against Manuel with the Public Protector and has filed a Constitutional Court challenge seeking cancellation of the arms deal. Both applications have yet to be accepted for action.

"My aim is to persuade the government to cancel the arms deal on the best terms possible," he told the Sunday Times. "This is money that could much better be used to fight poverty than to buy weapons that do not suit our needs."

Crawford-Browne, who worked as a banker in the US and South Africa, campaigned for anti-apartheid sanctions before 1994 and now runs the South African branch of an international lobby group, Economists Allied for Arms Reduction.

In his complaint to the Public Protector, he alleges that Manuel abused his authority in signing loan agreements lasting up to 20 years to buy the ships, submarines, planes and helicopters ordered in 1999. The real value of the $4.8-billion deal has fluctuated with the changing value of the rand, but it is expected to amount to between R5.2-billion and R7.8-billion a year during the current medium-term expenditure framework. The weapons will be paid for by 2020.

Crawford-Browne also alleges that Manuel committed perjury by swearing to an affidavit used in a previous case in which former Treasury director-general Maria Ramos said the loan was not dependent on the arms deal. He cites a copy of the 255-page loan agreement, which, he says, clearly links the loan to payment for the weapons.

The Public Protector dismissed Crawford-Browne's initial complaint, saying it would traverse the same issues as the Schabir Shaik trial, but he has yet to respond to further argument.

"Perjury by the minister of finance is, I suggest, an exceedingly serious matter and one that the Public Protector should be taking seriously, given the dire consequences for the country," Crawford-Browne said in a letter to the head of special investigations *1 in the Public Protector's office.

In the application to the Constitutional Court, he seeks leave to appeal against the dismissal of his earlier court challenge and wants cancellation of the foreign loan agreements as well as the industrial offset agreements linked to the arms deals.

The earlier challenge sought cancellation of the arms deal, but was dismissed.

In both his new applications, Crawford-Browne seeks cancellation of the order that he should pay R907000 in costs. He argues that the award would bankrupt him and would have a "chilling" effect on future public-interest litigation.

With acknowledgements to Brendan Boyle and the Sunday Times.

 *1 Can this be one Advocate Christoffel Hendrik Fourie, right hand man to Arms Deal joint investigation Stooge *2 2, Advocate Selby Alan Masibonge Baqwa SC?

*2 Definition : "a person of unquestioning obedience" <http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn?stage=1&word=stooge>www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn