Former African National Congress chief whip Tony Yengeni on Monday downplayed reports that he might soon be jailed after he missed the deadline for seeking leave to appeal against his four-year prison sentence.

Yengeni was sentenced to four years' jail in March 2003, after the Pretoria High Court found him guilty of defrauding parliament, over a discounted 4x4 Mercedes-Benz from one of the companies that had an interest in the arms deal.

Although he was expected to effectively serve only eight months of his sentence, the former ANC MP appealed, citing among other reasons that the national directorate of public prosecutions had promised him a lesser sentence of at most 18 months if he pleaded guilty.

Four years in jail The Pretoria High Court, however, turned down Yengeni's application to appeal and his claim that he was promised a lesser sentence was also rejected by the court two months ago.

According to legislation, Yengeni had 21 working days, starting from April 26 to May 29 to petition the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein for leave to appeal against the decision of the Pretoria High Court.

Failure to petition this court should have been the end of the road for Yengeni and he would have been expected to hand himself in at Pollsmoor Prison.

But in this case it seems Yengeni has every reason to take it easy because the condition for the extension of his bail does not specify 21 days but says bail was extended pending his petitioning of the appeal court.

"I believe they just extended the bail application pending his petitioning the Supreme Court of Appeal but it does not say anything about the 21 days. So in that case there's nothing we can do.

Application to appeal turned down "I cannot even report the matter to the director of public prosecutions," said Hendry Snyman, an official at the office of the president of the Supreme Court of Appeal.

Yengeni said, as far as he knew, there was nothing wrong with the legal processes regarding the petitioning of the appeal court.

"I do not know what this is all about because I believe that there's nothing wrong on my part and we (him and his lawyers) are in line with all the conditions that were laid down by the Pretoria High Court regarding the extension of my bail," said Yengeni.

He then referred all other queries to his lawyer Marius du Toit. Du Toit did not return messages left on his cellphone.

Snyman said although Yengeni's 21 days had expired, he could still apply for condonation of late filing of an application.

There was no deadline on applying for condonation.

Such an application would be decided by two judges in chambers, he added.

This article was originally published on page 5 of Cape Times on June 06, 2006

With acknowledgement to Thokozani Mtshali, Sapa and Independent Online.