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Arms deal hearings postponed

    JOHANNESBURG

    South Africa’s defence department was granted a two weeks’ postponement on Monday of public hearings into alleged corruption in the government’s US $6.3 million arms procurement deal. Legal counsel for the department asked the presiding panel, chaired by public protector Selby Baqwa, to postpone the hearing due to its complicated nature. Baqwa granted the postponement after the department’s legal team said they needed more time to prepare for the hearing. According to news reports the first subpoenas for witnesses to testify at the hearings were only issued on 19 May.

    The panel is looking into allegations of wrongdoing in the awarding of arms contracts, under which South Africa plans to buy major weapons systems from Swedish, German, British, French and Italian manufacturers. Baqwa said the panel would on 11 June also make a ruling on whether it would allow two television stations - free-to-air e-tv and public broadcaster SABC - to cover the proceedings.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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