”We will not resign.” That is the line African National Congress (ANC) MPs who have pleaded guilty to charges of theft and fraud in the Travelgate scandal are taking with their party bosses.
Five MPs who last year entered plea agreements with the National Prosecuting Authority were asked to resign their parliamentary seats — something current MPs say they did not see coming.
The ruling party has been coy about whether the 16 MPs who were this week handed fines and suspended jail terms will be allowed to stay in Parliament. Because none was sentenced to more than a year in prison without the option of a fine all remain constitutionally eligible to sit in the legislature and they are under the impression, they say, that they have cut a deal that will allow them to keep their jobs.
”We were not told directly by the secretary general [Kgalema Motlanthe], but it was communicated to us through our legal representatives,” said one of the MPs on Thursday.
But they remain suspicious, saying they have not yet been given a clear answer on their status.
Five ANC MPs remain on trial for now and one of them, Nyami Booi, has appointed his own legal counsel in preference to attorney Selwyn Hockey and advocate Seth Nthai, whose involvement in the case was facilitated by ANC leadership.
Antoinette Versfeld, a former DA MP, and Craig Morkel, who crossed the floor to his own Progressive Independent Party after he was suspended by the DA, will also join six travel agents in court next month.
The anger of the accused and convicted MPs over what they see as a selective prosecution of relative political lightweights got an airing this week when Reuben Liddell, appearing for Soraya Beukes, the owner of Business and Executive Travel, complained that she had not been shown the 2004 forensic report that formed the initial basis for the charges.
About 330 MPs are named in the report, and fresh evidence has emerged since it was compiled. Several MPs have said they believe they are being sacrificed to preserve the reputations of more senior party figures, some of whom have already made payments to the liquidators of the travel agencies or have turned state’s witness.
Liddell argued that Beukes could not prepare for her trial without the report, and said he would move to have charges dismissed if it was not provided. Parliament has so far strenuously resisted calls to make the contents of the report public.
Very little of the tension in the ANC caucus over the trial was on display when 14 of the MPs pleaded guilty in the Cape High Court on Monday.
Cape Judge President John Hlophe, presiding over what would ordinarily be a dry recitation of sentences, made the most of the platform to develop his dearest political concerns, the transformation of the courts, and his own difficulties with alleged conflicts of interest.
Hlophe was at his most emollient with the accused, gently enquiring whether they understood the terms of their plea bargain agreements, and calling them ”sisi”, ”buti” or ”tata”, and in three cases allowing Nthai to proceed with a pre-arranged concession to recite their struggle credentials into the court record.
Before putting formal proceedings in motion he congratulated Nthai on being awarded silk, or senior counsel status.
”When are you going to slaughter?”
”I need to invite my clients,” Nthai replied.
When Hlophe asked his clerk for water and none was immediately forthcoming Nthai sent up a bottle of mineral water.
”Should I disclose this?” Hlophe asked, taking a dig at the controversy over the propriety of fees paid to him by Oasis Asset Management, and a bursary given to his son by the law firm Smith Tabata Buchanan Boyes.