South African lawmakers convicted of travel voucher scandal
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.
