Forty MPs are to be prosecuted for their role in Parliament’s travel scam, the Scorpions announced on Friday.
“After considering the evidence and consulting with the affected parties, we have decided to prosecute certain members of Parliament in this matter,” spokesperson Sipho Ngwema said.
“Their names will not be released until they have been notified formally.
“The 40 members concerned will be notified next week and be brought before court immediately thereafter.”
Ngwema would not say what political parties the MPs belong to, or whether the state will be demanding bail.
“We are not sure if we want to give this sort of detail before the court appearance,” he said.
The announcement follows an intensive investigation, including a painstaking forensic probe, by the Scorpions after they took over the case from the South African Police Service in June last year.
Seven travel agents have been arrested in connection with the scam and have already made several appearances in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court.
One of the Scorpions prosecutors involved in the case revealed in December that the unit was under “immense pressure” to complete the investigation.
The prosecutor, Jannie Van Vuuren, said then that the Scorpions had received “representations” on the case from a number of MPs, but declined to say what these were about.
Ngwema said on Friday a decision still has to be taken on whether the MPs’ trial will be joined with that of the travel agents.
The 40 are the only MPs who will be charged.
He said they will be entitled to make representations on the merits of the charges against them, offer evidence as witnesses, and engage the prosecuting authority in plea-bargaining.
Asked if any have already made a plea-bargain approach, he said: “Not necessarily. If they want to, they can engage us.”
Parliament’s report to come
Parliament will soon be given a report detailing the outcome of the investigation and “certain recommendations”.
Parliament’s spokesperson Luphumzo Kebeni said the Scorpions need permission from the parliamentary speaker if they want to arrest or serve warrants on MPs within the parliamentary precinct, but do not need it if arrests are made outside.
One of the seven travel agents, Soraya Beukes, owner of Business and Executive Travel, is in jail after her R100 000 bail was withdrawn. She faces charges totalling about R3-million.
It has been reported that least three African National Congress MPs face sequestration by the liquidators of one of the travel agencies implicated in the scam.
They apparently stopped payment of debts for car hire incurred through the abuse of parliamentary travel vouchers.
A number of MPs have also reportedly agreed to pay back almost R450 000 to Parliament “without admitting liability for the debt”.
Speaker Baleka Mbete, who was not immediately available for comment on Friday, said in June last year that the amount involved in the scam could reach R16-million.
Investigators say the scam involved conspiracy to have travel vouchers only valid for air trips “extended” to cover additional costs such as car hire and hotel accommodation.
This was done by allowing or assisting travel agents to recover the additional costs, such as car hire, from Parliament under the disguise of valid claims for air tickets.
Agents allegedly added destination routes to inflate prices, issued and cancelled tickets on the same day, and then claimed the full fare from Parliament.
Bad practice
What appeared to have opened the door to the fraud was the practice among many parliamentarians simply to sign travel vouchers — which MPs must complete — and leave them to their secretaries to complete before submission to travel agents, the Mail & Guardian reported last year.
The Scorpions’ fraud and theft charge sheets were damning: “Accused … [being employed by the travel agency] and accused … [being MPs], knowing that travel warrants could only be used for air travel, conspired to have travel warrants extended to cover additional costs incurred on their behalf as well — inter alia, car hire and hotel accommodation.”
These charge sheets were presented to the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court.
Last year, Sunday Times reports had it that about 135 MPs, roughly one in four, had been looked at in the course of the investigation. Not all were guilty; many might have been unwitting participants in the schemes of travel agents who abused the flight vouchers to defraud Parliament.
The larger list of 135, the Sunday Times reported last year, included the names of bigger fish — among them Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula, Minister of Home Affairs Nosiviwe Maphisa-Nqakula, Minister of Education Naledi Pandor, Deputy Minister of Social Development Jean Benjamin, Speaker Baleka Mbete, Deputy Speaker Gwen Mahlangu, Free State Premier Beatrice Marshoff and Mpumalanga Premier Thabang Makwetla.
For a year, Parliament maintained there was no evidence that MPs were wilfully involved in the travel-voucher scam. When then-speaker Frene Ginwala called on parliamentarians to come clean, no one came forward.
The arrest of MPs will be the first major step against parliamentarians.
In 2000, Parliament reprimanded two MPs, both from the African National Congress, for misuse of travel vouchers in that year.