4 added to Travelgate list

2006-01-31 11:18

Cape Town - Three people, two of them serving ANC MPs, have been added to the list of 21 Travelgate accused who will go on trial in the Cape High Court in July.

A fourth name, that of former ANC Western Cape MP Bruce Kannemeyer, would be added at a court appearance on February 16, Scorpions prosecutor Jannie van Vuuren told a Cape Town magistrate on Tuesday.

Kannemeyer is currently Stellenbosch's municipal manager.

The three new names are Maxwell Moss, Lewele Modisenyane, and former MP Angie Molebatsi.

They and their co-accused, all of them current or former MPs, are accused of cheating Parliament by fraudulent use of travel vouchers to the value of some R24-million.

Van Vuuren told magistrate Hennie le Roux that the massive four-volume forensic report had been completed and handed over to the three defence teams.

They had also been given a DVD of the documents that would be used as evidence - a collection which advocate Seth Nthai, who is appearing for the ANC members, said amounted to about 250 lever arch files when printed out.

Le Roux granted Van Vuuren's request that the matter be formally transferred to the High Court for trial, and warned the accused to be there at 10:00 on July 31.

Moss, who is confined to a motorised wheelchair, was unable to enter the courtroom because a wooden partition just inside the doorway made the entrance too narrow.

He sat in the wheelchair in the doorway during the proceedings, and at one stage a co-accused, Craig Morkel, was relaying the magistrate's questions to him.

Nthai told the magistrate: "It's just an embarrassment that at this time we still have courts that are not friendly to people with disabilities."

- SAPA