Johannesburg: Another leading South African, Dr Mamphela Ramphele, has joined the campaign for a judicial commission of inquiry into the arms deal.

The academic, businesswoman and former MD of the World Bank joins Nobel laureates Desmond Tutu and FW de Klerk, as well as veteran politician Helen Suzman, Anglican Archbishop Thabo Makgoba and a host of others who have petitioned President Kgalema Motlanthe to set up the commission by Wednesday - December 10 is the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Motlanthe, who received the letter jointly signed by Tutu and De Klerk, was applying his mind to the matter, his spokesperson, Thabo Masebe, said.

Ramphele had told the petition's co-organiser and anti-arms deal campaigner, Terry Crawford-Browne, she was willing to become a co-signatory, advocate Paul Hoffman, SC, said yesterday. Hoffman is of the opinion that, should Motlanthe decline to appoint a commission, there are legal grounds to challenge the president.

The Social Justice Coalition - which recently also called for a commission of inquiry - is expected to meet this week and it is hoped it, too, will join the initiative.

The petition calls for the inquiry's terms of reference to be drafted as widely as possible.

The commission should be required to indicate who, if anyone, should face prosecution, and on what charges.

Moreover, there should also be an investigation into the possibility of cancelling arms deal contracts tainted by corrupt and fraudulent dealings, and recovering payments already made, the petition says.

With acknowledgements to Angela Quintal and Cape Times.