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So uth African President Thabo Mbeki on Sunday said he had a clear conscience about the countries multi-million rands arms deal.

This follows a Sunday Times report which said Mbeki was allegedly paid R30 million by a German shipbuilding company to guarantee it would receive a submarine contract in the arms deal.

The newspaper said in an article on Sunday, that a secret report compiled in 2007 by a United Kingdom specialist risk company revealed the deal.

Mbeki allegedly gave R2-million of the money to ANC President Jacob Zuma and the rest to the ruling party.

"That story is not true," Mbeki told a Free State Imbizo at Wepener in the Free State.

Mbeki was asked about the report during a public Imbizo with residents of the Motheo district including the Mangaung (Bloemfontein), Mantsopa (Ladybrand) and Naledi (Dewetsdorp) municipalities.

He said the ANC had taught him to always serve the people.

"You cannot serve the people and receive bribes," said Mbeki.

He said the country was fighting a hard struggle against corruption and that it was not possible to "fight corruption if we ourselves are corrupt".

Mbeki told journalists after the Imbizo that there had been a lot of mischief around the defence acquisitions for many years.

He said all that this had brought fourth was allegations and beliefs.

Mbeki said that anyone who had information in this regard must present it.

"If people have information that there was a criminal wrongdoing, bribes and corruption must report to the police," he said.

Mbeki said the report did not exist. "They want to perpetuate a lie for particular political reasons," he said.

Mbeki said there was absolutely no substance in this "thing"

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