The Tony Yengeni saga came to an abrupt end in a Pretoria court this week when he admitted to lying to the nation about his luxury 4x4 and pleaded guilty to fraud.

It all started 724 days ago with a sweaty handshake in his parliamentary office, where he defiantly told reporter Mzilikazi wa Afrika: "I will not submit myself to a witch-hunt by the Sunday Times."

This week he admitted in the Commercial Crimes Court to committing fraud by lying to Parliament about his purchase of a metallic green Mercedes-Benz ML 320.

When he spoke to Wa Afrika, the former Western Cape MK leader's star was on the rise: he held the powerful position of ANC chief whip in Parliament, having been elected as member of Parliament in 1994.

As chief whip, his job was to ensure other party members behaved themselves.

But this week, when he admitted to magistrate Bill Moyses that he had betrayed the trust placed in him as chairman of Parliament's joint standing committee on defence, he knew that he would leave court a disgraced man.

Despite his change in fortunes, Yengeni remained as casual as he was when the Sunday Times first broke the scandal - on March 25 2001 - standing in the dock in a colourful short-sleeved shirt.

It took the newspaper's investigation team a year to unravel a web of deception spun around the 4x4. But Yengeni denied everything, describing their reports as "hogwash".

His friend and ally, ANC Women's League president Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, who supported him throughout the trial, was not at his side on the day he was finally cornered.

Yengeni was forced to plea-bargain with the state, admitting to the lesser of the two charges against him - that of having defrauded Parliament by failing to disclose the R167 387 discount he had received on the vehicle.

But in a startling written confession, he confirmed the accuracy of all the Sunday Times exposés of the saga, admitting that he:

Lied about the sale of the 4x4 by "falsely inflating" its price as R230 052 when in fact he paid only R182 563 for the vehicle;
Lied that the 4x4 was a "used" and "damaged" vehicle when he bought it;
Lied that he had paid a deposit of R50 000;
Lied in full-page advertisements (costing R250 000 each) which he placed in national newspapers, excluding the Sunday Times, claiming there was nothing improper about the car deal; and
Lied in order to defraud Parliament by covering up the details of the purchase.

Parliament has a code of conduct that compels all MPs to declare gifts and benefits worth more than R350.

"My failure to disclose the benefit constituted a breach of my . . . duties and was potentially prejudicial to the integrity and reputation of, and trust in, Parliament," he told the court.

"The discount that I received was not available to the public or to dealers. I realised that it was highly unlikely that I would have received the benefit had I not been a high-profile person and chairperson of the Joint Standing Committee on Defence."

His confession was carefully worded so as not to directly connect the 47% discount on his 4x4 to the state's controversial multi-billion rand arms deal.

But Yengeni admitted that when he bought the vehicle from Daimler-Benz Aerospace AG, the company was a "potential" supplier to the South African National Defence Force - and the committee he chaired had been empowered to make recommendations on the defence budget.

The same company - which later became the European Aeronautic Defence & Space Company - went on, in a joint venture with Reutech Radar Systems, to secure a R500-million slice of the arms deal to supply missiles and radar tracking systems aboard four new SA Navy corvettes.

But in terms of Yengeni's plea-bargain, state prosecutor Gerda Ferreira accepted a plea of not guilty to a main charge of corruption - that in October 1998, he had received an undue discount on the 4x4, with the intention of using his parliamentary position to influence the arms deal process in favour of Daimler-Benz Aerospace.

The state had contended that if Yengeni had not intended to back the company's arms deal bid in exchange for the discount, he was in fact guilty of defrauding the company.

Yengeni told the court that the car deal had come about as a result of a friendship he had struck up with Michael Woerfel, head of Daimler-Benz Aerospace in South Africa at the time.

In March 1998, Woerfel invited Yengeni to a factory in Brazil where he heard the company was to release a prototype 4x4.

"I immediately developed an interest in the aforesaid motor vehicle," Yengeni said. On his return to South Africa, he "convinced" Woerfel to sell him the 4x4 at a discount.

But in his newspaper adverts, Yengeni claimed Woerfel "recommended" he buy the 4x4 because "having a person of my calibre buy the Mercedes ML model will do much to market their product. Convincing me was not a difficult task as I am a Mercedes-Benz fan," Yengeni wrote.

The fraud charge against Woerfel was separated from Yengeni's. The German national's trial is due to start on March 19.

The court process, which started on October 3 2001, was repeatedly delayed by Yengeni and, to a lesser extent, Woerfel. Yengeni's first legal team withdrew because he owed them R800 000 in fees.

Yengeni will be sentenced tomorrow.

With acknowledgements Michael Schmidt, Andre Jurgens and the Sunday Times.