Goniwe among MPs to be sued over Travelgate debt

Summonses were being issued by liquidators in three stages, and related to amounts MPs and former MPs owed Parliament for the misuse of their parliamentary travel vouchers through the liquidated Bathong Travel, said lawyer Brendan Olivier, of Fairbridges, who represents the liquidators, in a report in Business Day. Olivier said most of the MPs and former MPs had apparently ignored requests over a 12-month period to come forward and provide information to the liquidators that would help them recoup the money owed to Parliament as part of the R38m Travelgate scam. Olivier said that while more than 70 summonses involving R3.5m had been issued, an additional 130 summonses were expected to be issued soon. Full Business Day report

Goniwe has labelled his three-year suspension from membership of the ANC on a sexual harassment charge as ‘shockingly harsh’. The Daily Dispatch says he claims he was a ‘sacrificial lamb’ who was fired for sexual harassment to appease advocates of women’s rights. He believes a reprimand or fine would be a more appropriate sentence than the three-year expulsion and is appealing to the ANC’s National Executive Committee to rescind the decision. Goniwe also claims disciplinary committee chairperson Kader Asmal was biased when he chaired the hearing that expelled him on December 14 last year. The case centred around the claims of a 21-year-old Parliamentary intern, Nomawele Njongo, who said Goniwe abused his public position by trying to have sex with her at a dinner party in October. Goniwe was subsequently found guilty of sexual harassment and bringing the party into disrepute. As well as his expulsion, he was banned from standing for public office or from publicly representing the party for the three-year period. Full Daily Dispatch report