Anti-arms deal campaigner Terry Crawford-Browne is to proceed with legal action aimed at collapsing the government's arms deal, he said yesterday.

Crawford-Browne's lawyers had drawn up the court papers long ago, but had put their plans on hold pending the release of the investigation into the deal, which happened yesterday.

"Nothing (in yesterday's report) changes a jot of my intentions," the chairman of the SA chapter of Economists Allied For Arms Reduction said, angry at the "whitewash" that became of months of probing the deal.

He said: "I'm still convinced we have a watertight case".

In his court papers Crawford-Browne argues that Finance Minister Trevor Manuel did not get the necessary Parliamentary approval before signing loan agreements and credit guarantees on the deal. He also charges that not only did Manuel ignore his own department's study, which warned of the risks involved, but that he failed to alert Parliament to those risks.

Crawford-Browne wants the court to nullify the foreign loan agreements and guarantees.

He is still "appalled" at how government "went ahead so recklessly" with the deal, while SA has so many other pressing issues.

With acknowledgement to Vuyo Mvoko and Business Day.