Yengeni sentence 'lenient'

2005-11-11 17:14

Pretoria - A four-year jail term imposed on fraudster politician Tony Yengeni "errs significantly on the side of leniency", Pretoria High Court found in dismissing his appeal against conviction and sentence.

Judges Eberhard Bertelsmann and Ferdi Preller said an effective five-year sentence would have been more appropriate.

In terms of Yengeni's sentencing conditions, he could be released into correctional supervision after eight months in prison.

Yengeni remained out on bail pending his decision on a future course of action. He didn't attend Friday's proceedings.

Judges consider increasing penalty

The judges said they had considered giving notice of their intention to increase the penalty at the time of hearing Yengeni's appeal.

The judges said: "But, we were dissuaded from this course by the fact that the appeal would then have had to be postponed, delaying justice yet once more...

"Our inaction should not be regarded as an indication that a similar sentence will be endorsed by this court in a comparable case in future."

The judges dismissed the former African National Congress chief whip's appeal against a fraud conviction and four-year jail sentence.

Defrauding parliament

They found he had been correctly convicted of defrauding parliament by failing to disclose a near-50% discount he received on a 4x4 Mercedes Benz. The judges said he had lied about it for more than two years.

They dismissed as a fabrication the politician's contention that he had been promised a fine not exceeding R5 000 by former prosecution head Bulelani Ngcuka if he pleaded guilty.

Yengeni's lawyer, Marius du Toit, said they would probably challenge the judgment in the Supreme Court of Appeal, but the options had yet to be discussed.

He said: "We are disappointed, but it is not the end of the road yet."

The judges said a non-custodial sentence, as sought by the State and the defence in Yengeni's case, would be "flagrantly inappropriate".

Natural consequences

To raise his resignation from parliament as a mitigating factor was a fallacy.

The judges said: "The removal from an office of trust by a person who has, by dishonesty and greed, demonstrated that she or he is unfit to hold such office, is a natural consequence of such unfitness.

"The immediate and permanent removal from an office of trust should follow in every case of a crime involving an element of dishonesty as a matter of law and public policy."

Initially charged with corruption and fraud, Yengeni was convicted in 2003 of an alternative count of fraud after plea negotiations with the State.

The car deal was arranged by a representative of a bidder in the government's arms acquisition process, at a time when Yengeni was chairman of parliament's joint standing committee on defence.

- SAPA