CIVIL society groups Corruption Watch and the Right2Know Campaign have announced they will be taking the judicial commission of inquiry into the arms deal (the Seriti commission) on judicial review. They insist the public has been denied both truth and justice for corruption that continues to cost SA billions.The review is an attempt to challenge impunity for an event that corrupted SA, but by forcing us to reconsider the evidence, it provides an important opportunity to look at the role of the European arms companies in a deal that has proven deeply damaging to our democracy.The findings of the commission chaired by Judge Willie Seriti, which cleared almost all parties of wrongdoing, have found little public support. One of the cheerleaders has been former president Thabo Mbeki, who regards critics of the arms deal as driven by a stereotypical view that African governments are inevitably, or even uniquely, corrupt.Some people are undoubtedly trapped in a mind-set that pathologises ...
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