Last-minute efforts at plea bargain fail

Legal Affairs Correspondent

Fraud and corruption trials of former African National Congress chief whip Tony Yengeni and co-accused European Aeronautic Defence and Space (EADS) Company MD Michael Woerfel look set to start today after last-minute efforts at a plea bargain by Yengeni's legal counsel failed.

Viwe Notshe SC asked the Pretoria Commercial Crimes Court yesterday for a postponement until today to allow for further negotiations on a settlement agreement with the state.

Magistrate Bill Moyses granted the postponement but ordered the defence to inform the state by no later than 4pm yesterday of the outcome of the consultations and whether the state's requirements had been met.

Moyses said the case would continue today if the requirements were not met regardless of whether Notshe had received instructions from his client, Yengeni, to proceed with the trial.

By 7pm yesterday, Prosecutor Jan Henning SC had still not received any documentation from Notshe. "There has been some indications that we will receive something tonight, but we have decided to proceed with the trial tomorrow," he said.

The settlement, it is believed, would have involved Yengeni pleading guilty to some of the charges against him. Efforts to resolve the trial are believed to have a lot to do with Yengeni's inability to get legal aid to fund his trial.

Notshe indicated yesterday after the hearing that his client was not happy with some aspects of the settlement.

Henning made it clear from the start that he was against the postponement because the state was not confident Yengeni's counsel would have the document ready by the required time.

He said that Notshe had promised a revised agreement by Friday after the state turned down the first draft last Wednesday as "unacceptable".

The state was told it would receive a revised agreement on Monday and then yesterday morning before the start of the trial, which did not happen.

Henning said a number of state witnesses, including DaimlerChrysler SA's chairman, Christoph Kopke, had been inconvenienced by the delays.

Yengeni and Woerfel have both pleaded not guilty to charges of fraud and corruption relating to a 47% discount Yengeni allegedly received on a Mercedes-Benz 4x4 valued at R349950 in return for his alleged support for EADS.

Yengeni was chairman of Parliament's joint standing committee on defence at the time of his alleged deal with Woerfel.

The national prosecuting authority said yesterday that a settlement would not have had a negative effect on other trials relating to the arms deal, because the state had already made it clear in court documents that it was unable to prove that Yengeni influenced the arms deal, and did not intend to bring this into the case.

With acknowledgements to Chantelle Benjamin and the Business Day.