Parliament should still censure former African National Congress MP Tony Yengeni for misleading the National Assembly two years ago, Democratic Alliance chief whip Douglas Gibson said on Tuesday.

"I am proceeding with a motion in the National Assembly... The matter will not be closed until the National Assembly has expressed itself," he said.

The fact that Yengeni had resigned last week did not mean he should escape punishment.

"While it is correct that the joint ethics committee is unable to punish Mr Yengeni because its jurisdiction relates to sitting members only, the committee should nevertheless censure Mr Yengeni for his totally unacceptable behaviour.

"Nothing stops the ethics committee from expressing its disquiet and displeasure about the undermining of the code of conduct, and with it the image of the ethics committee and of Parliament," Gibson said.

Ethics committee chairman Luwellyn Landers said on Monday his committee would drop its inquiry into Yengeni's alleged contravention of Parliament's Code of Conduct because the former chief whip had quit Parliament.

Yengeni quit his seat in the National Assembly last Wednesday amid mounting pressure from within his party, after acknowledging that he had misled Parliament with the intention to defraud it.

Last month he pleaded guilty to fraud relating to a 47 percent discount he received in 1998 on a luxury 4x4 vehicle from the then head of a company involved in the arms deal. He is to be sentenced later this month.

In a special statement to the House in March, 2001, Yengeni claimed that he had bought the vehicle legitimately and that it had not been necessary to disclose it in the register of member's interests.

However, his subsequent acknowledgement in court that he had failed to disclose the discount, saw the ethics committee re-open its inquiry into the matter.

Parliament's code states that members must disclose all gifts, hospitality, sponsorships and benefits valued at more than R350, as well as shares and financial interests in companies and other corporate entities, in a special register of members' interests, which is updated annually.

With acknowledgements to Sapa and www.iafrica.co.za