Lethal Weapons

For a country that isn't fighting a war and isn't likely to fight one anytime soon, South Africa's $5.3 billion shopping list for military hardware over the past two years has touched off sizable hostilities. The purchases have elicited enough accusations of irregularity and corruption to force an official probe into the details. To the government's embarrassment, the investigators have now added to the case a file on Tony Yengeni, chief whip of the ruling African National Congress and — as head of the Parliamentary defense committee at the time the program began — one of its key...