President Jacob Zuma should ensure that arms giant BAE was blacklisted from all future government contracts in South Africa, arms deal activist Terry Crawford-Browne said in a letter to the president on Monday.

Crawford-Browne also called for the summary cancellation of BAE's Hawk and Saab Gripen contracts with South Africa, and the appointment of a commission of inquiry.

Zuma should make the announcements in his state of the nation address on Thursday, Crawford-Browne said.

His letter came after BAE Systems, the second-largest arms manufacturer in the world, last week agreed to pay fines totalling almost R3.9-billion in the United States and Britain to resolve long-standing corruption allegations.

Corruption-free governance

"BAE has now been confirmed by British and United States authorities as a corporate criminal entity with a very long and repeated history of using bribes to secure arms contracts," Crawford-Browne wrote to Zuma.

In the light of this, Zuma should appoint an independent judicial inquiry into the arms deal in the interest of "corruption-free governance".

Crawford-Browne said that in December 2008 Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and former state president FW de Klerk had jointly petitioned then-president Kgalema Motlanthe to appoint a judicial inquiry into the deal.

They were told to take the matter to the police instead, Crawford-Browne said.

"No case for an inquiry"

He had petitioned Zuma in June last year to appoint a commission, but Zuma had replied there was "no case for an inquiry" and that his petition was "vague and embarrassing".

"That your advisers very seriously misdirected you is now confirmed by the decision announced on Friday," Crawford-Browne wrote.

"It would be illegal and irrational for you to decline to appoint a judicial commission of inquiry in terms of your constitutional obligations."

Crawford-Browne is a former banker, a member of Economists Allied for Arms Reduction, and author of a book on the arms deal. "Eye on the Money".