Two senior advocates appointed to the commission as evidence leaders and assessors ­ Vas Soni and Sthembiso Mdladla ­ have been removed

Another crisis has hit the arms deal commission of inquiry with the removal of two senior officials at precisely the time when the commission called for Parliament to provide it with all the documents and reports on the arms deal in its possession.

The news that two senior advocates appointed to the commission as evidence leaders and assessors ­ Vas Soni and Sthembiso Mdladla ­ had been removed is the latest in a number of crises to hit the commission in the first eight months of its life.

The first was the withdrawal of Judge Willem van der Merwe shortly after his appointment.

About two weeks ago the secretary to the commission, Mvuseni Ngubane, was found dead in his car after apparently committing suicide.

The Financial Mail reported on its website that Mr Soni and Mr Mdladla had been removed for reasons that could not be disclosed. Attempts to reach commission spokesman William Baloyi for comment were unsuccessful yesterday. He was quoted as saying the process of finding replacements for Messrs Ngubane, Soni and Mdladla was at an advanced stage and the Department of Justice was assisting the commission in this regard.

The FM said it had established that after a routine vetting process, "it was discovered that Soni had failed to disclose that, back in 2008, he had acted for Thint, the local subsidiary of French arms company Thales, in its legal battle against the national director of public prosecutions."

Thint, later to become Thomson-CSF, was a bidder in the arms deal and was involved in the charges brought against the former financial adviser to President Jacob Zuma , Schabir Shaik.

The firm featured in the charges of fraud and corruption against Mr Zuma that were dropped before he was elected president in 2009.

Democratic Alliance defence spokesman David Maynier said the development was positive but "it does raise a question about why the clearance process took so long and action has been taken so late in the day.

"I will submit a parliamentary question to the minister of justice, probing what is being done to assist the commission to get off the ground, including appointing new evidence leaders. It is imperative that the integrity of the judicial commission of inquiry into the arms deal should be beyond question," he said.

Separately yesterday, a letter from the commission’s head, Judge Willie Seriti, was tabled in Parliament requesting Parliament "to provide it with copies of all reports generated by or submitted to Parliament or any of its committees relating to the procurement of the arms that is the subject of the commission’s inquiry, prior to and after the acquisition of the military equipment in question; the names and contact details of the members of parliamentary committees seized with the issues relating to the procurement of the arms in question; and the documents and information requested by 15 June 2012".