A travel agent facing fraud and theft charges in the parliamentary travel scam was released on R100 000 bail in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Friday.
Soraya Beukes, former owner of the travel agency Business and Executive Travel, was released on R100 000 bail last year.
Her bail, however, was withdrawn by magistrate Hennie le Roux, and she was taken back into custody, after an allegation that she had misled the court and the Scorpions about her reasons for a proposed business trip to Mozambique.
The Cape High Court later dismissed her appeal against Le Roux’s ruling, and confirmed his finding that she had become a flight risk.
On Friday, she launched a renewed bail application before Le Roux, based on new facts that would justify her release.
Lawyer Reuben Liddell read to the court the preamble to the Constitution, and highlighted the right to equality of treatment and fundamental human rights.
He alleged the 20 members of Parliament arrested by the Scorpions for their involvement in the travel scam had been treated with ”kidgloves”, as they had not been arrested like the travel agent.
Scorpions prosecutor Jannie van Vuuren explained that only those whose charges involved more than R500 000 had been arrested, and this was not the case with the arrested MPs.
Liddell said Beukes had been back in custody for five months, and was severely traumatised.
In his opinion, Beukes would not be jailed when her trial ended.
Conditions in Pollsmoor Prison were appalling, and not fit for human beings, he argued.
He said Beukes was in a cell meant for 10 people, but 24 had been crammed into it and she often had to share a mattress at night.
The toilets were in a serious state of disrepair, with the floor covered in urine. Any woman using the toilet sat with her feet in the urine, he said.
Liddell said Beukes had no right to privacy, and had become ill since her incarceration.
Van Vuuren said the state had decided not to oppose the application — the change of heart based solely on the lengthy postponement of all the travel scam cases to June 8.
He said the next court appearance would be the last one in the District Court, and by then the state would have decided whether to charge the MPs and travel agents in the High Court or Regional Court.
During the final proceedings in the Magistrate’s Court on June 8, the cases would be transferred for summary trial, he said.
Beukes’ stringent bail conditions included a ban from leaving the Western Cape without written permission from the Scorpions, and a ban from entering any airport. – Sapa