The African National Congress has allowed fraudster Tony Yengeni time to discipline himself - or, as the party puts it, to follow his conscience.

ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe said on Thursday that the party's top officials felt there was no need to discuss Yengeni's decision to plead guilty to a charge of fraud in the Pretoria Commercial Crimes Court last week.

This was not because it was not important, but because Yengeni knew the ANC was against corruption and encouraged its members not to act improperly.

"When a man is walking his darkest hour, you don't want to be seen to be pursuing him even further. We move from a premise that our members, especially our leaders, have consciences.

"We prefer to give our members time to follow their consciences," Motlanthe added.

"Whatever decision they take, they will communicate it to us and we'll take appropriate action, if necessary."

In other words, Yengeni will "sanction himself" and thus circumvent the possibility of being hauled before an ANC disciplinary hearing.

The ANC's former chief whip failed to disclose to parliament that he had received a 47 percent discount on a Mercedes 4x4.

He will appear in court on March 19 for sentencing.

A draft resolution of the National Assembly states merely that "the house pronounces its strongest disapproval of the Honourable Yengeni's conduct, and censures him accordingly", Sapa reports.

It is due to come before the house next week.

On Thursday speaker Frene Ginwala drew a distinction between the ethics committee - which had reopened its inquiry into Yengeni's failure to disclose benefits in parliament's register of members' interests - and the National Assembly, which had to consider whether Yengeni's statement of March 28 to the house was accurate or misleading.

"The two cases are separate and do not conflict. If it is established that the house was misled, then it is extremely serious," Ginwala said.

However, MPs needed to decide as a matter of principle how seriously the National Assembly should treat MPs who misled the house.

Ginwala complained that despite having asked for stricter sanctions to be written into parliament's rules, this had yet to be done.

The Assembly's draft resolution refers to Yengeni's statement to the house in March last year, in which he claimed that he had "legitimately purchased" the Mercedes after he had been implicated in corruption.

With acknowledgements to Makhudu Sefara and The Star.