Senior members of the African National Congress in the Western Cape region will accompany politician Tony Yengeni, who has been convicted of fraud, when he reports to Pollsmoor prison on Thursday.
”The ANC provincial leadership will accompany Yengeni. We will be showing our solidarity with him,” said Max Ozinsky, the ANC’s deputy provincial secretary, on Wednesday.
Ozinsky said officials expected outside the prison gates include provincial chairperson James Ngculu, premier Ebrahim Rasool and other provincial executive members.
It would possibly be a case of déjàvu for Rasool, if he attended, and would probably remind him of walking side-by-side with former ANC heavyweight Allan Boesak when he began his fraud conviction sentence in 2000 at the same prison.
Ironically, Yengeni was also present during Boesak’s send-off. Other prominent ANC leaders present in 2000 were current Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula and his wife Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, the current Minister of Home Affairs.
Provincial ANC secretary Mcebisi Skwatsha was overseas and was only expected back at lunch time on Thursday, said Ozinsky.
He said ”timing was important” and would determine who was available.
Ozinsky did not know exactly what time Yengeni would report to prison, following a deadline imposed by the Supreme Court of Appeal which tossed out Yengeni’s appeal contesting his four-year prison sentence.
In 2003 Yengeni, who at one stage served as the party’s Chief Whip in Parliament, was convicted of fraud related to the multibillion-rand arms deal after he accepted a discount on a luxury vehicle from one of the bidders.
Ozinsky refused to be drawn on what type of reception was planned.
In 2000 a guard of honour carried Boesak, who was also convicted of fraud and sentenced to three years, shoulder-high as he reported to prison.
Boesak was transferred from the notorious Pollsmoor prison complex to the new-generation Malmesbury prison, where he served most of his sentence.
Speculation was rife that Yengeni would take the same penal road, but this could not be immediately confirmed with the Department of Correctional Services. ‒ Sapa