The Free State MEC for sport, arts and culture, Susan Mnumzana, has been added to the list of politicians being summonsed by the liquidators of the Bathong travel agency.
Mnumzana, who appeared before a magistrate at the liquidation inquiry at the Bellville Magistrates' Court on Thursday, is being asked to account for a total of R79 000 spent on air tickets and car hire in her name while she was an African National Congress MP.
The travel arrangements were made through Bathong, one of the travel agencies linked to an alleged multi-million rand parliamentary travel voucher fraud.
Attorney for the liquidators Bernhard Kurz told Mnumzana that the liquidators had been unable to find vouchers for air tickets worth R55 000 taken in the names of her or her dependants, which meant there was no record Bathong had been paid.
He said a few weeks ago the amount in question had been R32 000.
"We scratched around, and now it's R55 000," he said. "We will scratch some more and it might go up to R100 000."
He also said Mnumzana had not supplied the liquidators with any information in the eight months since she was sent a letter asking for any records that might help unravel Bathong's finances.
Mnumzana said she had at one point been in hospital, and claimed the liquidators and Kurz were threatening her.
Kurz said he would give her just over a week to go to Parliament's financial management office and search for the missing vouchers. If she did not produce them, he would issue summons for the money.
"I'm telling you you'll be wasting your time, because there has been a forensic audit for the last four years and they do not exist," he said.
However Mnumzana's attorney said he believed Kurz that there were no warrants, and that his client would waive the week's grace, allowing Kurz to issue the summons immediately.
Free State premier Beatrice Marshoff, who appeared in the inquiry earlier this year, has acknowledged that just under R8 000 of the claim against her was private, not parliamentary, travel, and that she owes this amount.
Another former ANC MP, Alice Sigcawu, also appeared on Thursday.
The liquidators are asking her to account for R111 337, the bulk of it made up of tickets for which there is no record that Bathong was ever paid.
Sigcawu said a R22 313 flight to London, for a 2001 trip made as part of her duties with the public works portfolio committee, had been booked by the department of public works, and that it was responsible for payment.
Kurz said he was going to give her an opportunity to go to Parliament and track down missing vouchers.
However, as with Mnumzana, he told her that there were none, and that his instructions at the moment were to reclaim the amount from her.
Sigcawu, speaking through a Xhosa interpreter, said it was possible someone had "forged names".
Kurz told the court that summonses had so far been issued against 22 current and former MPs.
The hearing was postponed to November 14. - Sapa