South African lawmakers convicted of travel voucher scandal
Five South African Parliament members were convicted of fraud for their part in a multi-million rand travel voucher scandal, in the Cape Town Regional Court on Friday morning.
They pleaded guilty to fraud and were the first of 23 parliament members implicated in the scandal to be criminally convicted.
South African Press Association reported that the five - Rhoda Joemat, Pamela Mnandi, Mavis Magazi, Tseko Taabe and Mildred Mpaka- were sentenced as part of a plea agreement to fines ranging from40,000 rand (about 6,670 US dollars) or one year’s direct imprisonment to 80,000 rand (13,340 dollars) or three years imprisonment.
They were also given varied suspended sentences in accordance with the severity of their misconduct, according to the report.
The scam, dubbed by the South African media as the “Travelgate” scandal, involved conspiracy to have travel vouchers only valid for MPs’ air trips “extended” to cover additional costs such as car hire and hotel accommodation.
This was done by allowing or assisting travel agents to recoverthe additional costs, such as car hire, from the Parliament under the disguise of valid claims for air tickets.
Agents allegedly added destination routes to inflate prices, and issued and canceled tickets on the same day, and then claimed the full fare from the Parliament.
Related Travel Information
Given that they've got team-mates from two other countries, perhaps some might view South Africa's desire to experiment during the Afro-Asia Cup, which starts at SuperSport Park on Wednesday, as selfish.
Of course, seeing that they're providing more than two-thirds of the playing staff, a bit of self-indulgence is forgivable.
Between them stand-in skipper Shaun Pollock and newly appointed South African coach Mickey Arthur (who is looking after the African XI for the series) were somewhat apologetic in their assessment of the Africa side's plans for the three-match series.
"There are a few fairly nice innovations we are going to try over the
South Africa has named a squad of 24 players to take part in a tournament organised by the Confederation of African Rugby in conjunction with the International Rugby Board, to start next week in Windhoek.
The tournament will enable a country, other than South Africa, to qualify as the African team at the IRB's Under-18 championship in Dubai next year. As defending champions South Africa does not need to qualify.
South Africa will take part in the Windhoek tournament along with Namibia, Tunisia, Morocco, Côte d’Ivoire, Uganda, Kenya, Madagascar and Zimbabwe. The tournament runs from 24 August to 3 September 2005.
The
South Africa's powerful trade union federation COSATU has urged President Thabo Mbeki to reinstate his former deputy Jacob Zuma, saying a corruption case against him should stop because it is politically motivated.
COSATU is officially an ally of the ruling African National Congress in government, and its call marked widening divisions between Mbeki and the labour movement whose support has helped the ANC hold on to power in the 11 years since apartheid ended.
Mbeki fired Zuma in June after a court convicted an adviser of bribing him. Zuma is to be tried for corruption in October.
The Congress of South African Trade
Banks and resources led South African stocks lower on Wednesday due to a cautious earnings outlook at Standard Bank, profit-taking and the threat of high oil prices hurting profits.
The blue chip top-40 index dropped 1.36 percent to 14,081.84 points, while the all-share index fell 1.28 percent to 15,515.28 points, after touching 15,479, recording its biggest one-day fall since the July 7 London bombings.
"The whole market is seeing profit-taking," Ryan Wibberley, a trader at Investec Securities said.
"The profit-taking is slightly overdue and is healthy for the market; it can't go up in a straight line."
Wibberley said marginally weaker metal prices also
The Indian left-arm pace-man took three for 37 from eight overs to cock a snook at the Indian selectors, who dropped him from the tri-series in Zimbabwe.
Ashwell Prince struck an unbeaten 78 to give Africa a measure of respectability as they were dismissed for 198 by Asia in the opening one-day game of the three-match Afro-Asia Cup on Wednesday.
South African left-hander Prince hit five fours in 113 balls to resurrect the innings after Africa had been reduced to 57 for five in the 13th over after being put in to bat.
Indian left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan
