This newspaper has frequently said that as long as there are suspicions of a cover-up the "arms deal affair" will not conveniently disappear and be forgotten. This week the Democratic Alliance asked the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (Scopa) to reopen investigations into the alleged irregularities in the arms deal. It says it is now "common knowledge" that "material changes" were made to the draft of the joint investigation team's report. The obvious conclusion to be drawn is that those changes were made to remove material embarrassing to the government. This itself gives ample grounds for suspicion that crooked dealing was involved and that there were people in government more concerned about personal gain than the good of the country.

In addition to the alleged doctoring of the report, the continuing trial of Schabir Shaik keeps the arms deal in the public consciousness, and some of the things heard in the Durban High Court certainly do not suggest a transparent and strictly honest process. Then, too, it is suggested that some of the vaunted reciprocal trade agreements accompanying the arms deal are not so wonderful after all. As more information comes to light, several different government departments seem to be compromised.

The monkey will not get off the government's back. It will not go away until the whole truth is known, until the public knows about everyone at every level of government who acted without integrity in the arms deal itself and in any subsequent cover-up, and until they face up to the consequences of their dishonesty, and resign or are dismissed.

With ackowledgement to The Natal Witness.

*1 This was not and is not a joke.

But how come, of nearly all the newspapers in the country, other than from time to time the Mail & Guardian and Business Day,  The Natal Witness loudly and clearly proclaims its opinion about the grand larceny *2 which is the Arms Deal?

*2

larceny : noun

stealing, especially the crime of taking something that does not belong to you, without getting illegally into a building to do so