S.Africa to re-open arms deal probe

South Africa will re-open the investigation into a multi-billion-dollar arms deal which involves claims of bribery in the country’s largest military contract, the president’s office said Thursday.

Jacob Zuma has decided “to appoint a commission of inquiry to investigate allegations of wrongdoing in the Strategic Defence Procurement Packages, generally known as the ‘arms deal'”, his office said in a statement.

The arms deal is a political hornets’ nest in South Africa, where Zuma himself had faced charges of fraud, money laundering and racketeering in connection with the 1999 deal.

Charges against Zuma were dropped just before his election in 2009, after roiling South African politics for a decade.