"I was ostracised, but I was doing it for the people of this country. I wanted to assist the Government to root out the few bad apples," she said.

Shaik's brothers, Chippy and Yunis, arrived at court today to join their other brother Mo, who has been present almost every day of the trial so far.

De Lille told the court that she knew nothing about the arms deal until she received a phone call in September 1999 about information that "concerned members" wanted her to bring to the attention of parliament.

She arranged for the documents to be collected and brought a motion before parliament on September 9 that year.

Shaik's advocate, Francois van Zyl SC, said the defence had a serious problem with the State leading evidence of what was contained in the document as it was filled with "all sorts of speculation, damaging to individuals, with no indication where it came from."

But advocate Billy Downer SC, for the State, said in turn that it was very important for him to prove what had happened in parliament as it was at least on September 30 that the first meeting between Shaik and Alain Thetard from French arms company, Thomson CSF, took place.

Downer said it was the State's case that the idea was first raised at this meeting that Thomson would need protection against subsequent investigations.

De Lille told the court that after she received the documents, now known as the "De Lille Dossier", she asked for the president to order a commission of inquiry into the arms deal.

When this was refused, she made contact with the Heath Special Investigation Unit and asked it to investigate.

Judge Willem Heath's unit, however, needed a presidential proclamation to launch the investigation.

De Lille said this was not forthcoming either and while the unit was waiting for the president to agree, it was disbanded after a Constitutional Court judgment.

De Lille said she specifically wanted the Heath unit to investigate as it was the only body that could cancel contracts obtained in a corrupt matter.

IFP MP Gavin Woods broke his silence when he described the background to the Scopa investigation into the arms deal.

Woods said Scopa was very much aware that history showed that malpractice took place in arms deals, mostly because of the clandestine way in which they were concluded.

"There was no reason why South Africa had to be different," he said.

Woods said Scopa was concerned that key stages of the arms procurement process had broken down, which opened the door for abuse.

He added there was a conflict of interest between Shaik, who "had an interest in the arms deal", and his brother Chippy, who was the Department of Defence's chief procurement officer and as such "extremely influential".

The trial continues.

With acknowledgements to the Daily News.

*1 And the 3rd "Umpire", Match Referee, Chairman of Everything that Chippy was not, Mbeki said to the Heath SIU:
"Life Ban".