Richard Young, the arms deal contractor suing the government for R149 million, says the axing of Jacob Zuma should be only the start of a process.

He believes more politicians and bureaucrats from the arms industry benefited from bribes paid by arms manufacturers.

Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille, who raised the alarm in parliament about corruption, has also called on the government to protect the whistleblowers who first approached her with concerns.

"The De Lille dossier must be further investigated," she said yesterday.

Young questioned the veracity of some of the statements President Thabo Mbeki made while reading his decision to parliament yesterday.

Mbeki said no prime contractors had been implicated by parliament's investigation that included the Public Protector and the Auditor-General.

He also claimed no politicians had been rumbled by the investigation, and said that although the investigation had been slammed as weak, it had recommended further investigations into government officials and local arms manufacturers.

But Young pointed out that Thomson-CSF - as Thint and Thales - had been a primary contractor to the arms deal. *1

He is suing the government for losing out to Thint subsidiary ADS - which was 10% owned by Schabir Shaik - after intervention by Zuma.

But Helmoed Rohmer-Heitman, the South African correspondent for Jane's Defence Weekly, which focuses on international defence matters, applauded Mbeki's "courageous stance *2".

"It means for any businessmen coming to South Africa that they mustn't bother trying to bribe our politicians because we send them to jail *3. It means investors can come to this country with confidence," he said.

Terry Crawford-Browne, an economist who took the government to court to stop the multibillion rand arms deal, said Zuma was merely a "sacrificial lamb *4" in the process.

"I concur with the judgment that Zuma was party to the bribery by Thomson CSF but president Thabo Mbeki still insists that arms deal is valid.

"If he continues, the scandal around it will not cease," said Crawford-Browne.

With acknowledgements to Alameen Templeton, Quinton Mtyala and the Cape Times.

*1 So is African Defence Systems (Pty) Ltd (ADS).

*2 Indeed.

*3 Not quite - the NPA goes after the easy targets like poor old Schabir Shaikh and lets off the following natural and juristic persons, inter alia :

Thomson-CSF International, a French company based in France;

Jean-Paul Perrier Perrier, a French citizen based in France;

Yann de Jomaron, a French citizen based in France;

Thomson-CSF Holdings (Southern African) (Pty) Ltd, a French-owned company based in South Africa;

Thomson-CSF (Pty) Ltd, a French-owned company based in South Africa;

Pierre Moynot, a French citizen based in South Africa.

*3  Sacrificial maybe, but certainly no lamb.