Arms probe investigators want to know how ANC Chief Whip's wife acquired her Mercedes-Benz

The Sunday Times can today disclose that a Mercedes-Benz driven by the wife of beleaguered ANC Chief Whip Tony Yengeni is now also under investigation. 

The car, a silver C180 valued at R180 000 with personalised numberplates, is the same vehicle in which Yengeni arrived at Parliament this week as a storm erupted over his luxury green Mercedes-Benz ML320. 

Last week the Sunday Times disclosed that a Mercedes ML320 four-wheel-drive, ordered as a staff car by a company which benefited from the R43-billion arms deal, ended up belonging to the ANC Chief Whip. 

Yengeni stood up in Parliament this week to protest his innocence. But he has yet to produce any concrete evidence explaining how he obtained the luxury vehicle. Now his wife's car is also being probed by an investigation team led by Auditor-General Shauket Fakie. Investigators are looking at the circumstances surrounding the purchase of the vehicle. 

Documents in the possession of the Sunday Times show that Lumka Yengeni's vehicle was ordered by DaimlerChrysler SA as a "staff car". Mrs Yengeni is a senior executive at Denel, South Africa's arms parastatal. Like the ML320 under investigation, the C180 was also financed through DaimlerChrysler Financial Services (Debis). It was registered on January 3 this year. This week the Sunday Times traced new documents relating to the registration of Yengeni's controversial 4x4. 

They list Stannic as the title-holder of the car. Yet Stannic denies ever financing the car. The registration papers, bearing the signature TS Yengeni, also list McCarthy Motors in Pretoria as the dealer which registered the vehicle on behalf of Stannic. 

The forms, signed in Pretoria on October 22 1998, clearly warn that any "false declaration is punishable with a fine not exceeding R20 000 or one year imprisonment or both". Next to this warning is the signature "TS Yengeni". McCarthy Pretoria's managing director, Graham Damp said: "Investigators have already drawn these records to look into the matter." 

The 4x4 was registered in Yengeni's name but he only entered into a finance agreement (with Debis) seven months after it was registered. 

The Sunday Times has meanwhile also established that Yengeni had a third Mercedes-Benz E220, registration number CA 709401. This vehicle was bought in 1995 for R328 480 and financed through Wesbank. Documents show that the last recorded instalment was made in June last year, when Yengeni owed more than R80 000. Yengeni was paying instalments averaging R4 700 a month on the E220 when he registered his new car, the R359 000 ML320, in his name on October 22 1998. 

The former chairman of Parliament's Joint Standing Committee for Defence was at pains this week to point out that his ownership of a 4x4 had had no bearing on which companies won contracts in the R43-billion arms deal. He told Parliament this week: "The acquisition of the vehicle did not in any way whatsoever, influence the award and/or is related with the award of any contract in the Arms Procurement which is under investigation." 

However, the company which ordered the car as a "staff car" - DaimlerChrysler Aerospace South Africa - secured a R220-million deal, through a joint venture, to provide tracking radars for the navy's corvettes.

It emerged this week that, in addition to the radar deal, DASA will also benefit from a R200-million corvette missile contract. 

DASA was incorporated into the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company in July 1999.

EADS is a joint venture between Aerospatiale Matra of France, Construcciones Aeronauticas of Spain, and DASA. It was announced in September last year that Aerospatiale Matra won a R200-million-plus contract to supply Exocet missiles for the corvettes.

In other developments this week it was disclosed that a top official at DaimlerChrysler South Africa is a director of a black empowerment company linked to the radar deal. 

DaimlerChrysler's Divisional Manager for key accounts, Fanyana Shiburi, is a director of Kgorong Investment Holdings which is part of the successful EADS radar joint venture. 

Yengeni's spokesman refused to comment to the Sunday Times. 

After a week of bluster, these are the questions Yengeni won't answer:

• Tony Yengeni protested his innocence this week but failed to produce any documents or proof that would explain: Whether he paid a deposit for his 4x4 and, if so, how much; Why the car's registration papers, bearing his signature, list Stannic as the titleholder. Stannic denies it financed the car; 

• Why he waited seven months after registering the car in his name to enter into a financial agreement with DaimlerChrysler Financial Services; 

• Why his 4x4 was insured 140 days after it was registered in his name; and

• How he ended up with a car that was ordered by DaimlerChrysler Aerospace SA as a "staff vehicle". 

With acknowledgment to Mzilikazi wa Afrika, Jessica Bezuidenhout, Andre Jurgens and the Sunday Times.