[I think 179 Members of Parliament are involved. Jan]

By Angela Quintal and Jeremy Michaels

National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete says she is having sleepless nights over the multimillion-rand travel scam that has tarnished the institution she now heads.

“I am concerned. It is a worrying thing and hopefully we can get done with it as soon as possible,” she said.

Mbete and National Council of Provinces chairperson Joyce Kgoali are expecting a list of MPs’ names from the Scorpions next week, which they will forward to the party leaders whose members have been implicated in the scam.

Seven travel agency bosses and employees have already been arrested for allegedly defrauding parliament of about R16-million.

Mbete said: “I have been having sleepless nights. I’m just worried about the institution, (its) image in the public mind. We have just come from a successful election, which in itself is an expression of great confidence in what we have been doing.

“And as we are celebrating 10 years of democracy this thing blows up in our face. We are a symbol of pride, so it is not a happy thing to go through this kind of period.”

Mbete said she would not rush to conclusions. “Once the facts are clear, then we will take the steps that need to be taken.”

Mbete, who has been named by a Sunday newspaper as being among those under investigation, cautioned against naming MPs without sufficient proof.

“I am concerned that there shouldn’t be a continued sensationalisation of specific names when in fact we are not sure of what the facts are,” she said.

In addition to recovering the money and bringing the culprits to book, a major focus for parliament would be to correct and strengthen its systems, she said.

This article was originally published on page 1 of Cape Argus on August 05, 2004

Source: Independent Online (IOL)
URL: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click…/p>