ANC leader quits post after corruption charges

By M.S. Prabhakara

CAPE TOWN, OCT. 5. Mr. Tony Yengeni, senior leader of the African National Congress and the party's chief whip in Parliament, resigned from his position following his arrest on Wednesday by the Scorpions, the elite police investigating unit, on charges of corruption, fraud, statutory perjury and forgery. He is the first high-profile casualty of the ongoing probe into allegations of corruption in the controversial multi-billion rand Strategic Defence Procurement package - the so-called arms deal.

Mr. Yengeni, who was released on bail for an amount of rands 10,000, is to appear before the Special Commercial Crimes Court in Pretoria on January 15 next year.

Announcing his decision to step down as ANC chief whip, Mr. Yengeni maintained that he was innocent of all the charges and would prove this in court. He also said he would remain an ANC MP.

The charges on which Mr. Yengeni was arrested arise out of the allegations in an investigative report in Sunday Times on March 25 this year, relating to his purchase in October 1998 of a Mercedes-Benz vehicle at a heavily discounted price from DaimlerChrysler Aerospace South Africa (DASA), one of the companies involved in the arms procurement deal.

The deal, initially estimated to run to rands 37 billion, is now estimated to cost nearly twice that amount.

Investigation into allegations of corruption surrounding the deal have been muddied on other issues relating both to the substance of the allegations and the process of investigation.

Among the charges made is that Mr. Yengeni received this discount in return for using his position to influence the arms acquisition process in favour of the company, even though he was in no position to do so, thus intending to ``defraud'' the company - a charge brought by the company itself.

A warrant is also out for the arrest of Mr. Michael Woerfel, a senior official of the European Aerospace Defence System (EADS), another major role player in the arms deal now under suspension, who at the time of the purchase was managing director of DASA.

Mr. Yengeni and Mr. Woerful are accused of forging the sale document to make it appear consistent with normal business practice, again defrauding the company.

The vehicle, the market price of which at the time of the deal was in the region of rands 314,000, was sold to Mr. Yengeni for rand 230,052 because it was a ``damaged used vehicle''.

However, according to the charges, the actual purchase price was not rands 230,052 as claimed by Mr. Yengeni but rands 182,563; the vehicle was not damaged; and Mr. Yengeni did not pay any deposit on the purchase.

In other words, Mr. Yengeni benefited to the extent of over rands 130,000 from the deal.

Given the sums involved and the allegations of corruption made around the arms deal, the allegations against Mr. Yengeni, that he secured for his personal use a luxury vehicle at a discount, are really trivial.

Denying all these allegations in a full-page advertisement in some Sunday papers on July 15 this year - estimated to have cost rands 250,000, considerably more than the maximum benefit he may have received from the luxury vehicle deal - Mr. Yengeni maintained that these were part of a ``witch hunt'', driven by racist envy toward a successful black politician.

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Section  : International
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