The validity of an alleged sentencing agreement between former prosecutions head Bulelani Ngcuka and politician Tony Yengeni was questioned in Yengeni’s Pretoria High Court appeal bid on Monday.
Presiding judges Ferdi Preller and Eberhard Bertelsmann questioned whether such an agreement would have been enforceable, considering that it would have been unlawful and unconstitutional.
Yengeni has claimed that Ngcuka promised him a fine not exceeding R5 000 if he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of fraud.
The meeting, he claimed, was also attended by former justice minister Penuell Maduna.
Questioned by the judges, Koos van Vuuren conceded that such an agreement can never be enforceable. He argued that one can never enter into a binding contract to do something that is impossible.
But Van Vuuren maintained his client was misled.
Matthew Chaskalson, for the national director of public prosecutions, described Yengeni’s version as fanciful.
Even if an agreement existed, it would have been inconsistent with the law and with the Constitution. The breach of such an agreement, had it existed, could never be considered an irregularity.
Had Yengeni been deliberately tricked, that would have impacted on the fairness of his trial, Chaskalson said. But that is not what happened.
Yengeni asked the High Court to review the criminal proceedings by which he was found guilty of fraud and sentenced to four years in jail. — Sapa