Parliament buys up debtors book in a move to keep MPs’ names secret
Parliament is to pay R370 000 to shut down the Travelgate saga — and thereby protect MPs implicated in the scandal from being sued.
- Travelgate MPs’ property confiscated
- Travelgate MPs ‘let off too lightly’
- State is stalling, claim Travelgate fraud suspects
The R370 000 payment is to buy up the debtors book of one of the travel agencies involved — which will prevent the agency’s liquidators from suing for money owed to creditors. These creditors include parliament.
The move has effectively brought relief to more than 60 MPs who were set to be sued by the liquidators of Bathong Travel after they ignored demands for payment.
National Assembly speaker Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde.
Arno Schippers of C&A Friedlander Attorneys, who represented Neethling Chartered Accountants in the Bathong liquidation, confirmed that the offer had been accepted by Bathong’s creditors, who include his client. He could not confirm the amount, but two well-placed sources put it at R370 000.
“We found (the offer) acceptable. According to the agreement, parliament will be at liberty to pursue the claims,” Schippers said.
Parliament has, however, indicated that MPs will not be taken to court to recover the money.
In terms of the deal, he said, the R370 000 would be shared among the other creditors.
Two senior ANC MPs familiar with the deal told the Sunday Times that parliament had bought the Bathong debtors book to prevent it from falling into the hands of people hostile to the ruling party and to the MPs involved.
Parliamentary officials said National Assembly speaker Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde and National Council of Provinces chairman Mninwa Mahlangu disclosed the deal in a closed meeting with MPs last month.
The meeting resolved that the MPs would not be sued for the money. It also decided that the deal should be kept under wraps.
Parliament, the speaker and the NCOP chairman have for two weeks failed to respond to Sunday Times inquiries regarding the matter.
National Council of Provinces chairman Mninwa Mahlangu
The Sunday Times was unable to establish the total value of the outstanding debts in the book.
However, court documents reveal that by 2007, liquidators had unearthed Bathong’s debtors book which recorded the names of 220 current and former MPs have been involved in “irregular” travel-voucher usage.
This resulted in summonses totalling R4.3-million being issued. At that time, only 20 MPs had paid in full.
Several others were still paying in instalments, and at least 60 refused to pay at all.
Former National Assembly speaker and now deputy president Baleka Mbete was miffed when liquidators added more names to the original list of MPs after “reconstructing” more suspect travel invoices.
When liquidators ran out of money to take MPs to court, parliament refused to fund the legal battle.
Mbete said last year that this was because the MPs were being wrongly pursued
Deputy president and former speaker Baleka Mbete
She said the Travelgate matter should be finalised before the country’s fourth parliament is sworn in after next month’s elections.
Lawyer Bernard Kurz, who once represented both parliament and the liquidators in the matter, confirmed that parliament had bought Bathong’s book.
He said closing the door to legal action was not a good decision.
He said parliament would miss out on recovering a potential R6-million suspected to be involved in one aspect of the fraud, which involved MPs booking two trips and cancelling one — while parliament was billed for both. It is thought the travel agents pocketed part of the ill-gotten money, and may have paid kickbacks to MPs.
In May last year a notice was published in the Government Gazette citing parliament’s intention to push for a resolution, in a meeting of Bathong creditors, to stop the litigation against MPs. The notice sparked controversy, with C&A Friedlander calling it illegal.
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