Paul Holden, the author of an expose on South Africa's multi-billion arms deal, called on Parliament on Wednesday to instigate a fresh inquiry into the affair to follow leads pointing to top politicians.

In a written submission to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa), Holden said there were suggestions that offset deals, a key argument advanced by government for the buying spree, had also become "an avenue" for corruption.

Holden said when the Scorpions raided the local offices of BAE late last year, their warrants authorised them to seize not only documents relating to the sale of Hawk and Gripen jets, but also those relating to the company's offset obligations.

An investigation into a fraud scam at South African Royal Manufacturers, a company involved in a gold project in which BAE was participating, may have found evidence that members of cabinet and government received kickbacks, he said.

Holden warned that so far only the tip of the iceberg of shady deals linked to the arms deal was known and called for an independent judicial commission of inquiry to probe deeper.

"There exists many avenues of investigation into the Arms Deal that have not been fully explored," said the author of the best-selling book "The Arms Deal in Your Pocket".

"Unless this is done, it is verily believed that innumerable acts of corruption, and the substantial mismanagement of the public purse will continue to be ignored."

Scopa agreed to scrutinise Holden's submission, along with several others relating to the arms deal, next week.

The call for a new investigation has been taken up by the Democratic Alliance, which warned the ANC not to stall the matter to prevent a probe being launched before Parliament breaks up ahead of the elections.

With acknowledgements to Sapa.