More than eight years after arms deal corruption allegations first hit Parliament, ANC MP Vincent Smith has warned that the institution should not be used to play politics with the contentious issue.

Smith's warning came as Parliament's watchdog body, the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa), yesterday considered public submissions motivating for fresh investigations into allegations of corruption and fraud in the multi-billion-rand deal.

In a virtual replay of when the first allegations reached Scopa through a report by the Auditor-General (AG) in 2000, the ANC and opposition parties bared fangs at yesterday's meeting before MPs reached a consensus to hold public hearings.

The NPA, Armscor and the Departments of Trade and Industry and of Public Service and Administration will appear before it next week, because their written responses to questions on how they have dealt with outstanding issues relating to the deal did not make the grade.

"Our concern (about) this committee is that we can't finish (the arms deal inquiry) in this term," said Smith, who heads the ANC's Scopa delegation. "What that means is that this Scopa is just making politics. Let's agree that the new committee getting in (after the elections) can look at it. If we can't finish, then it is purely politics."

Smith's appeal for constraint, ironically, came just an hour before President Kgalema Motlanthe again rejected fresh calls for a judicial investigation into the deal, saying it would constitute a parallel process to the investigations by the NPA.