Eight current and former MPs have been served with summonses for repayment of more than R1,3-million in travel claims.
Bernhard Kurz, attorney for the liquidators of two of the travel agencies involved in the parliamentary travel-voucher scam, said on Wednesday the summonses were served in Cape Town on Tuesday afternoon.
The eight are Mnyamazeli Booi, Bangilizwe Solo, Jabu Sosibo, Barbara Thompson, Makatse Maine, Patrick Maloyi, Pemmy Majodina and Buti Mkhaliphi.
They were all served either through their lawyer or at their homes at the parliamentary residential complex Acacia Park.
The first six all had dealings with the liquidated Business and Executive Travel, and Majodina and Mkhaliphi with ITC Travel.
Kurz said a summons will also be served in Johannesburg on African National Congress Women’s League secretary general Bathabile Dlamini, a former MP, from whom the liquidators are said to be demanding more than R200 000.
The serving of the summonses allows the liquidators to apply for summary judgements against the parliamentarians, who may contest the application.
Booi, a former chairperson of Parliament’s defence committee, Solo, Sosibo, Thompson, Maine and Maloyi are all serving African National Congress MPs.
Meanwhile, the behind-closed-doors negotiations on the as-yet-unnamed current and former MPs facing arrest in the travel scam appear to be over.
The Cape Town lawyer representing all the ANC MPs questioned by the Scorpions in connection with the matter, Selwyn Hockey, was locked in talks with prosecutors on Monday and Tuesday.
His secretary confirmed on Wednesday he was back in his office, but said he was ”unavailable”.
Hockey revealed after the first day of talks that it had been agreed his clients would not be formally arrested, but could merely present themselves at court instead.
The Scorpions’ news blackout on the case also continued.
Spokesperson Sipho Ngwema did, however, say on Tuesday that the unit still planned to have the MPs appear in court before the end of the week.
He earlier announced that 27 serving and 13 former MPs will be prosecuted for their role in the scam, which involved the fraudulent use of parliamentary travel vouchers.
The identity of only one of the MPs has become public — that of Democratic Alliance MP Craig Morkel, who said he was told on Tuesday that he is one of the 40. — Sapa