Yengeni ups ante to scrub drunk driving case

23 October 2014 - 02:29 By Philani Nombembe
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ANC bigwig and the party's former chief whip Tony Yengeni has failed in his bid to persuade the Western Cape head of prosecutions to drop drunk-driving charges against him.

He appeared in the Cape Town Magistrate's Court yesterday.

Prosecutor Adiel Jansen told the court that the provincial director of the NPA, Rodney de Kock, had rejected Yengeni's representation.

But the former chief whip won't go down without a fight.

He has escalated the matter to the NPA's national director, Mxolisi Nxasana.

"Yengeni will submit his representations to the office of the NPA in the Western Cape and we will forward them to the national office," said Eric Ntabazalila, the NPA's provincial spokesman.

He will appear in court again on November 26 to hear Nxasana's decision.

Yengeni was arrested in Cape Town in August last year when city police spotted him driving his Maserati unsteadily.

At the time, city councillor responsible for safety and security JP Smith said Yengeni was found to be substantially over the legal blood-alcohol level of 0.05%.

In an attempt to get off the hook, Yengeni, who is on R500 bail, has hired a forensic expert to poke holes into the state's system to catch drunk drivers.

Yengeni was arrested on similar charges in 2007, but was acquitted after the court found his blood sample was kept at former Goodwood police station commander Siphiwe Hewana's office instead of being sent for forensic analysis.

Hewana was arrested and jailed for four years for attempting to defeat the ends of justice.

Yengeni was on parole at the time of his arrest after he was convicted for fraud relating to the arms deal.

He served four months of his four-year sentence.

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