Former national director of public prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka denied on Monday having promised politician and convicted fraudster Tony Yengeni a maximum R5 000 fine in exchange for a guilty plea.
”This is a distorted version of the truth,” Ngcuka, now a businessman, said through spokesperson Sipho Ngwema. ”It is going to be exposed in court as a contrived version.”
Yengeni claims in a sworn affidavit before the Pretoria High Court that Ngcuka reneged on a deal struck between the two of them and former justice minister Penuell Maduna at the latter’s Johannesburg home in January 2003.
It was agreed that he would plead guilty to the lesser of the charges against him, Yengeni, a former African National Congress chief whip, states in a revised notice of appeal.
”I accepted the arrangement even though I still felt that I was innocent of all the charges,” he says. ”I was satisfied that an agreement had been reached which would prevent a protracted trial.”
But prosecutors pressed for a heavy sentence — resulting in his four-year jail term, Yengeni claims. He accuses Ngcuka of never intending to honour ”the agreement”.
According to Ngwema, Ngcuka has confirmed that a meeting took place between himself, Maduna and Yengeni. Yengeni raised the possibility of a plea and the principle of the matter was discussed.
The details of the deal were worked out between the prosecution and defence teams.
Ngcuka denied making any deals himself, Ngwema said.
”He could not have done that. It was not within his powers. The most puzzling thing is why it has taken two years for Mr Yengeni to come up with this distorted version?”
The Democratic Alliance described Yengeni’s claims as ”another hint of special deals for the ANC elite”.
If true, the DA wants to know whether the deal was made to protect the ANC from embarrassment.
”Was it simply the ANC elite looking after one of their own to the extent of trying to save him from jail?”
The new head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Vusi Pikoli, should clarify exactly what happened, the DA said.
An NPA spokesperson could not be reached for comment — nor could Maduna, who was said to be out of the country. — Sapa