The arms deal may be old news, but corruption is at the centre of the national agenda as never before.

Fourteen years after the arms deal packages were concluded we know quite a lot about how corruption came to be stitched into the fabric of what was the biggest procurement exercise in South Africa's short democratic history.

Distressingly little of that knowledge, however, is part of the official record, still less has formed the basis for any kind of accountability.

There is the report of the Joint Investigation Task Team, gutted of its real import before it was made public, and the tragico-farcical parliamentary process in the standing committee on public accounts, which laid the basis for the narrative that any corruption was confined to secondary contracts, and did not involve high government officials. Then there is the record of the trial of Schabir Shaik, which establishes his involvement, along with President Jacob Zuma, in procuring cash for political "protection".

The rest: Tony Yengeni's discount Mercedes 4x4, the millions of rands that flowed to Fana Hlongwane, an adviser to then defence minister Joe Modise, the role of Thabo Mbeki and Tony Georgiadis in swinging the contract for warships to Thyssen, and the assiduous efforts of former prosecutions boss Menzi Simelane to kill the Scorpions' investigation and to frustrate international investigations. These revelations are unchallenged, but have been largely without consequences for individuals implicated in corruption.

The commission of enquiry chaired by Judge Willie Seriti is at last due to begin public hearings on August 5. It has been dogged by controversy and administrative problems, but it remains our best chance of a formal reckoning. If it is to achieve that it must consider all of the voluminous evidence at its disposal, and spare no one involved the bright spotlight of public questioning. It must call Hlongwane, and it must conduct a detailed cross examination of all the key players, including Mbeki and Zuma.

The arms deal may be old news, but corruption is at the centre of the national agenda as never before. South Africans will accept nothing less than a full accounting.

With acknowledgement to Mail & Guardian.