A restricted report which threatens to show up former defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota in a bad light has been rubbished by his former department as having been "doctored".

Nearly two years after Lekota vehemently denied the reported multimillion-rand theft and loss of defence force equipment, vehicles and supplies from its bases in Burundi, a restricted SA National Defence Force legal services staff paper has described the non-prosecution of those responsible as "stupefying".

But the defence department on Wednesday insisted that the report obtained by The Star - which was originally commissioned by the chief of the SANDF's legal services - had been altered by unknown people with access to restricted documentation.

As a result of the "doctoring" of the report, the department's spokesperson Sam Mkhwanazi refused to clarify or comment on the report's criticism of "the non-prosecution of any (Burundi-based battalion) commanders for negligent losses of state equipment and property, and failure to account for the theft from SANDF stores in Burundi".

The document's author, Captain DK Gillespie, said last night: "I did not write that."

Read more at: Independent Online