The terms of reference for this commission, its composition or the timeframes for the investigations have not yet been announced. Opposition political parties and labour representatives have welcomed the news.
It comes more than a year after activist Terry Crawford-Browne appealed to the Constitutional Court in a bid to force the president to re-open investigations.
Times Live reports that formal investigations into the arms deal started in 2000 when Parliament's standing committee on public accounts requested a probe be undertaken.
Independent Online says that in 2009 legal proceedings were instituted in the Western Cape High Court to direct the president to appoint an independent judicial commission of enquiry.
Business Day says that in recent months new evidence has emerged of huge payments of "commissions" to South Africans for facilitating bids to supply weapons has emerged. It says BAE Systems and Ferrostaal have admitted to paying millions of rands to South Africans, notably Fana Hlongwane, a former adviser to the late Defence Minister Joe Modise.
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