Yengeni edges closer to cell

2006-04-26 16:06

Pretoria - Former African National Congress chief whip Tony Yengeni moved one step closer to a jail cell on Wednesday when two Pretoria High Court judges dismissed his application for leave to appeal against his sentence.

In November last year, Judge Eberhard Bertelsmann and Judge Ferdi Preller dismissed Yengeni's appeal against his conviction and four-year prison sentence on a charge of defrauding parliament.

On Wednesday, they dismissed his latest attempt to stay out of jail when they turned down his application for leave to appeal to the appeal court in Bloemfontein against his four-year prison sentence, of which he effectively has to serve eight months.

The judges again emphasised that Yengeni was a public official who had abused his position of trust for personal gain and said he should have been given a more-severe sentence.

Almost exhausted all avenues

Yengeni's attorney, Marius du Toit, said although he still had to receive final instructions, it was almost 99% certain that his client would now launch a petition in the appeal court for leave to appeal.

He had 21 days to file the petition and would apply for the extension of his bail.

If that application failed, Yengeni would have exhausted all of the existing avenues and would have to start serving his prison sentence.

Yengeni's senior advocate, Koos van Vuuren, argued that the court had over-emphasised the aggravating features in the case and had all but ignored his client's personal circumstances.

But, Judge Preller said Yengeni was not an ordinary citizen, but a public official who had been convicted of corruption.

Yengeni 'sold out'

He said his first feeling on reading the papers was one almost of shock and it again struck him between the eyes on re-reading it that this man had "sold out the interest of his country for personal gain while he was in a position of trust".

Judge Bertelsmann said Yengeni had abused for years his position of trust.

He had not only failed to enter and disclose a benefit in the register of parliament, but had repeatedly, dishonestly and calculatedly denied receiving the benefit.

He said he remained firmly of the view that as far as sentencing was concerned, the aggravating features of Yengeni's conduct outweighed any consideration of his personal circumstances and that the crime warranted a more-severe sentence than the one imposed.

Pleaded guilty to fraud

The judges last year refused Yengeni's application to set aside the magistrate's court proceedings, which saw him pleading guilty to fraud and admitting he had deliberately failed to disclose to Parliament that he had received a 48% discount on a luxury 4x4 Mercedes Benz from a potential weapons supplier.

Yengeni was the chairman of the parliamentary joint standing committee on defence at the time.

Yengeni claimed he had an agreement with former national director of public prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka that he would receive a fine of not more than R5 000, but the judges found such an agreement had never been entered into and could in any event not be lawfully enforced.

Corruption a serious threat - judges

They also dismissed Yengeni's argument that parliament could not be defrauded.

They said the fact that he intended to deceive parliament and the public had been established beyond doubt by his stubborn denial of the truth for almost two years.

This had been exacerbated by the deliberately deceitful advertisements he published in order to cover his tracks.

They emphasised that corruption and other crimes of dishonesty on the part of elected official bearers had become one of the most serious threats to the country's well-being and required drastic efforts to combat it.

- SAPA