Publication	Sunday Times
Date	2006-08-27
Reporter	André Jurgens
Web Link	www.sundaytimes.co.za

At the prison gates, the disgraced ANC heavyweight mistakes himself for a hero

Last Minutes of Freedom: Tony Yengeni, second from left, is seen off to jail by his son Mandla, far left, daughter Nandi and wife Lumka, all wearing sunglasses
Pictures: Michael Walker


A man in denial, Tony Yengeni went to jail as if he were a conquering hero rather than the crook the courts declared him to be.

First, the convicted fraudster arrived at Cape Town’s Pollsmoor Prison like a nabob ­ cocooned inside a 4x4 worth far more than the metallic green one that caused all his troubles.

Then he was carried like a champion to the prison gates on the shoulders of singing supporters and even toyi-toying uniformed prison warders, swept up in the heat of the moment.

Yengeni’s executive entourage could easily have been mistaken for a government imbizo.

Among the dignitaries held in his thrall were Baleka Mbete, the Speaker of Parliament, the very institution Yengeni was sent to jail for defrauding, Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool, ANC Chief Whip Mbulelo Goniwe, Western Cape ANC provincial chairman James Ngculu, members of Parliament and MECs.

Inside the overcrowded prison complex, the disgraced former ANC chief whip was greeted by Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour. Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad had chatted to Yengeni privately at his home only hours earlier.

Yengeni’s car trouble started *1 with a sweaty handshake five and a half years ago. There were beads of sweat on his brow as he stood in his parliamentary office facing a Sunday Times journalist.

“Why is your hand sweating like that?” Yengeni asked.

“No,” said the reporter on February 23 2001, “it’s not my hand that is sweating, but yours, Mr Yengeni.”

The newspaper wanted to know how he had become the owner of a luxury 4x4 ­ a metallic green Mercedes-Benz ML320 worth R359 000.

“I will not submit myself to a witch-hunt by the Sunday Times,” said the defiant former Western Cape MK commander.

It took the newspaper a year to unravel a web of deceit spun by Yengeni around the 4x4, sold to him for just R182 563 by the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) ­ a bidder in the controversial multibillion-rand arms deal.

Yengeni was the chairman of the parliamentary joint standing committee on defence when he got the flashy wheels.

They ultimately led him to the end of the road this week ­ the gates of Pollsmoor Prison. He will serve a four-year prison sentence for fraud, for failing to disclose to Parliament the 47% discount he got on the 4x4.

Parliament had a code of conduct compelling all MPs to declare gifts and benefits worth more than R350.

He arrived at the prison in a black Range Rover ­ a top-of-the-range 4x4 that sells for more than R700 000 today *3. Traffic department records state that he is both the owner and title-holder ­ suggesting the 2005-model vehicle is fully paid for.

Addressing his supporters on Thursday, he played down the severity of his crime. “What has happened to me is a great injustice, it is an unfortunate travesty of justice ... You would think that I broke into Parliament and stole the safe ...”

He was going to jail, he complained, for simply failing to declare to Parliament the discount he got on his car, and for that he would be put in a “cage” with dangerous criminals.

“An issue that was certainly a parliamentary issue was hijacked and criminalised,” he said.

Perhaps Yengeni’s memory needs refreshing. In his plea-bargain agreement with the state during his 2003 trial in the Commercial Crimes Court in Pretoria, he pleaded guilty to fraud. He also admitted that he effectively lied to the nation about his 4x4 for two years.

In his written plea of guilt he admitted to:

•Backdating the 4x4 sale agreement and falsely inflating the price he paid to R230 052 to try to cover up getting an “improper benefit” when he had actually paid only R182 563;

•Lying about the 4x4 being “used” and “damaged” when he bought it;

•Lying about paying a deposit of R50 000; and

•Lying in full-page advertisements (costing R250 000 each) he placed in national newspapers where he “falsely attempted to give out that there was nothing improper about the benefit [discount]” he received.

“I’m going to go into this prison, I’m going to serve this term and I need no favours from anybody,” he said.

“Those who think that prison is going to break me, they are in for a rude surprise.”

Additional reporting Ndivhuho Mafela and Philani Nombembe

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*1       Wrong: Yengeni’s car trouble started in 1998 when he accepted large discounts on three luxury Mercs from Daimler-Chrysler Aerospace (DACA) agent Mickey Woerful in order to smooth the way for DACA's aspirations in supplying a range of equipment, especially the AT2000 light fighter aircraft for the SAAF, but also the TRS-3D search radar and RTS 6400 tracking radar *2 for the SA Navy.

The discounts might not have been generous enough because DACA only succeeded with the RTS 6400.

But DACA is a major shareholder of European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) whose disappointment with their share in the Arms Deal was soon to be remedied when they got an uncompeted R10 billion contract from the South African government to supply eight top-of the range Airbus A400M military transport aircraft.


*2      Via DACA partner Reutech Radar Systems (Pty) Ltd of Stellenbosch.


*3      Who says crime doesn't pay?

The man has kept out of jail long enough to accumulate the wonga for the big Range Rover.