Travelgate destination still up in the air
March 19, 2009
Three days after requesting confirmation that Parliament was purchasing the debtors book of Bathong Travel - an agency embroiled in the Travelgate travel voucher saga - parliamentary media manager Luzuko Jacobs had still received no reply from National Council of Provinces chairman Johannes Mahlangu and National Assembly speaker Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde to questions about the matter.
The purchase of the book would prevent it from falling into the hands of another party, who could then decide to sue as many as 60 MPs who have been implicated in voucher fraud.
There is little hope that Parliament itself will take action against the MPs.
Already 31 MPs have agreed plea bargains in the Travelgate case. Charges against four travel agents and one remaining MP - Mnyamezeli Booi, who became ANC chief whip late in 2008 - will continue. Booi declined to admit guilt and his case has been repeatedly delayed. It is now expected to be heard from June 1.
Some MPs had to resign their seats as a result of Travelgate fraud. Others, such as Charles Redcliffe and Antoinette Versveld, both former National Party MPs who ended up in the DA, had already left Parliament by the time they agreed to plead guilty. A protracted case in the regional court prevented both of them from standing in the 2004 election and they faced huge legal bills to fight their cases.
Five ANC MPs who resigned their seats in 2005 argued at the time that they were sacrificial lambs, because they had agreed to enter into a plea bargain with the National Prosecuting Authority, admitting to the abuse of travel vouchers. They had believed they would keep their seats, but were pressured to resign by none other than Mbulelo Goniwe, who was later fired as chief whip for other reasons. Ruth Bhengu, who now appears high up on the ANC election list, was one of the five. The others were Mildred Mpaka, Pamela Mnandi, Rhoda Joemat and Mavis Magazi.
Then in 2007 Craig Morkel joined the ANC during the floor-crossing window. Morkel, who was found guilty of travel voucher fraud, was welcomed into the party by then national chairman - and now Cope president - Mosiuoa Lekota.
Morkel started off as a member of the New National Party before joining the DA. He then defected to form the Progressive Independent Movement, from which he in turn defected to the ANC.
He remains an ANC MP but is not on the 2009 election lists.
One assumes that has nothing to do with a sudden twinge of conscience in the ruling party over Travelgate.
Grooving in Gugs
While Gugulethu may be one of the smallest townships in the big three cities, it is increasingly becoming among the best known here and abroad.
Foreign tourists snap up T-shirts bearing the nickname Googlethu. Bulelwa Belu-Toni, a consultant tasked with including the local community in the development of Gugulethu Square, the sophisticated black township mall being built in the Cape, says it is now known by its high society moniker, Guguletois.
This is due in no small part to the entrepreneurial flair of Mzoli Ngcawuzele, the owner of Mzoli's Meat and Grill. He has successfully put his spot on the bus map for foreign tourists, giving visitors a fat slice of non-vegetarian township life. Now he is partnering Old Mutual and others to build the 27 000 square metre shopping centre.
Belu-Toni's role has been and will be key. The mall has been designed with a direct connection to a taxi rank that is in good nick - important because people in the township generally don't have cars.
Retailers and owners of the plethora of new township malls in Gauteng have faced anger from existing traders - owners of independent stores as well as hawkers. While this opposition has often been disorganised, it can be a threat, particularly if used by dodgy local leaders seeking credibility.
Already the country has seen so-called leaders violently exploit xenophobia to shore up community support. While the developers of the Gugs mall may have the genuine interests of residents at heart in their efforts to include existing hawkers and independent retailers as tenants, one can't help thinking it is being done, in part, to defuse potential conflict.
Uncowed commission
Once upon a time - many millions of rands' worth of legal fees ago - the competition commission began an investigation into possible anti-competitive activity in the dairy industry. As older readers will no doubt recall, almost nothing has come of this investigation since its launch way back in 2005. Well, nothing apart from an extensive array of legal challenges to the processes employed by the commission.
Yesterday the competition tribunal issued its decision in a matter brought by two of the eight parties accused of anti-competitive activity, Milkwood Dairy and Woodland Dairy. They had argued that the charges should be scrapped because the commission's summonses were too broad and vague, among other reasons.
While the tribunal agreed that the charges were too vague, it did not agree with the contention that the process had resulted in an invasion of the privacy of the two dairy companies. It granted a preservation order to secure the evidence collected from Milkwood and Woodland.
As the tribunal noted: "The prohibited practice claims that the applicants face in this case are very serious and involve allegations of collusion in markets to which many consumers are exposed."
So, assuming there is no appeal on these points, the commission can continue with its case. The good news is that, albeit four years later, the commission is at least no longer troubled by vagueness on this issue.
Edited by Peter DeIonno, with contributions by Donwald Pressly, Tom Robbins and Ann Crotty.
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