Anna Majavu

Anna Majavu

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel wants the Cape high court to hand down a two-year jail sentence to Terry Crawford-Browne.

Manuel's lawyer, Brian Pincus, on Monday told Judge Burton Fourie that Crawford-Browne was in contempt of court for breaking an interim gagging order handed down in March.

The order was handed down after Manuel applied for Crawford-Browne to be permanently gagged from saying he should be charged with corruption alongside Jacob Zuma.

Pincus said Crawford-Browne "should keep his tongue" until the outcome of Manuel's application for a permanent gagging order was known.

But Crawford-Browne told the court that silencing him would not make questions into corruption in the arms deal go away.

Crawford-Browne won a court order in 2003 compelling the government to hand over 770000 arms deal documents.

But he says they failed to do so and so he has continued to accuse Manuel on the grounds of his alleged signature on loan agreements relating to the government's purchase of fighter planes from British arms company, BAE Systems.