Top officials will meet on Thursday to discuss the role of Chippy Shaik, former head of procurement at the defence department, in South Africa's controversial multi-billion rand arms deal.

The meeting on Thursday will be between the National Prosecution Agency (NPA), Public Protector advocate Lawrence Mushwana and the Auditor-General.

Mushwana said last month that "the meeting was scheduled following a complaint lodged with the Public Protector by a political party regarding an amount of money that Chippy Shaik... allegedly solicited from a bidder in the arms procurement process."

Mushwana and NPA head advocate Vusi Pikoli met on 19 February to discuss the way forward with the investigation.

They both decided that the Auditor-General should be part of the discussion as their institutions were involved in the Joint Investigation Team that investigated the arms procurement allegations in 2001.

With acknowledgement to Sapa and Independent Online.