From former ANC chief whip to disgraced jailbird ... and back to the top again. This is the extraordinary story of the rise and fall and rise again of Tony Yengeni, who yesterday was elevated by his party to one of the most powerful positions in the country.

The ANC's national executive committee (NEC) today named Yengeni as one of the 20 people chosen to form the national working committee (NWC), the party's influential operational structure (see Page 5).

The NEC chose the 20 at its meeting in Kempton Park yesterday.

For Yengeni this has been a remarkable comeback - but the signs were always there that many influential members of the ANC had brushed aside his conviction for defrauding parliament .

Seen as an ardent Zuma supporter, he was welcomed to the ANC's Polokwane conference last month. And there his popularity was sealed when delegates voted him into 21st position on the NEC's list of 80 leaders.

Yesterday he was again honoured when he was elected to the NWC.

It was a discount on a flashy car that got Yengeni into hot water, but despite his being forced from public office and ending up serving time over it, fancy cars clearly remain close to his heart.

Yengeni's release from Malmesbury Prison last year saw a clutch of black luxury vehicles arrive at the jail so Yengeni could drive off in style.

Yengeni's woes began in the late 1990s over a love for Mercedes vehicles. Investigators probing allegations of corruption in the country's multibillion-rand arms deal turned their attention to the circumstances in which Yengeni, who at one stage headed the joint standing committee on defence in parliament, had received a massive discount on a luxury Mercedes 4x4.

Yengeni was jailed for four years for keeping this deal secret from parliament and was sacked as chief whip.

He served less than four months of his sentence. After his release on parole ANC leaders were cagey about his future role in the ANC.

But Western Cape provincial secretary Mcebisi Skwatsha said Yengeni had "served his due, no problem".

Speaking in his personal capacity, Skwatsha admitted that Yengeni's struggle credentials did not give him a "passport to do anything wrong", but the fact that he had been convicted of fraud "does not make him less of an ANC comrade".

Shortly before the ANC's conference last month Yengeni applied for, and was granted, permission to go to Polokwane.

There his popularity became evident and he was voted into 21st position on the NEC list.

It was said he became the main driving force in the Western Cape behind efforts to see Zuma assume ANC leadership and was seen seen at rallies that Zuma attended and at high-level meetings at which the succession debate was on the agenda.

At the weekend he was a guest at ANC president Jacob Zuma's wedding to his fourth wife.

But, like Zuma, Yengeni's troubles are not over.

Both will be in the dock later this year - Zuma in KwaZulu Natal and Yengeni in Cape Town.

Yengeni is facing a messy drunken driving case.

The policeman at the centre of Yengeni's arrest has been suspended after claims he had instructed two junior policemen to change the time of the arrest from 12.20am on Monday, November 26, to 9pm on Sunday, November 25, three hours earlier.

Senior Superintendent Siphiwo Hewana is was also accused of ordering the policemen to change the front cover of the docket to reflect this changed time.

With acknowledgement to The Star.