ANC bigwig Tony Yengeni was allegedly three times over the legal blood-alcohol limit when he was arrested late on Sunday evening outside a Cape Town venue popular with ANC politicians and BEE businessmen.
A police source said: "He was at least three times over the limit. It's not a borderline case; he was seriously drunk."
The law states that one cannot exceed more than 0.24 milligrams of alcohol per 1000 millilitres of blood when a breathalyser test is taken. Yengeni currently heads the ANC's political education school and was previously an MP.
He received a criminal conviction in 2006 over receiving a discount on a Mercedes-Benz SUV as a reward for his role in the arms deal. In November 2007 he was arrested for drunken driving in Goodwood in Cape Town after his BMW landed on a traffic island.
Yengeni was eventually acquitted on that charge due to a police conspiracy to protect him - for which the former Goodwood station commander, Siphiwo Hewana, was convicted on a charge of defeating the ends of justice.
Cape Town's mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith said Yengeni was pulled over by the city's metro police at 10.15pm on Sunday after he was seen driving his white Maserati GranCabrio "erratically" outside the popular Cubana restaurant in Green Point.
Smith added that the Maserati had no number plates and Yengeni could be fined for this. In July last year he was fined R800 for the same thing.
Previously it was reported Santam paid out R1.3-million for damage to the Maserati after it hit a barrier on the N1 in 2010.
Western Cape transport MEC Robin Carlisle said yesterday that Yengeni was not fit to be a leader in a political party.
He said his department would follow Yengeni's case to ensure that there was no tampering with the evidence as in the 2007 case.
Yengeni's next court appearance will be on March 4 2014.
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