Mnyamezeli Shedrack "Nyami" Booi was born on 15 October 1958 and is a South African politician who represented the African National Congress in the National Assembly from 1994 to 2019.
15 Facts About Mnyamezeli Booi
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Mnyamezeli Booi was convicted of fraud in 2009 in relation to the Travelgate scandal, and in 2019 he was reprimanded in Parliament for violating parliamentary rules about the disclosure of external financial interests.
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Mnyamezeli Booi's brother is Fumanekile "Fatty" Booi, who was active in the ANC during apartheid and who later became a prominent figure in the Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans' Association.
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Mnyamezeli Booi was first elected to an ANC seat in the National Assembly in the general election of 1994, South Africa's first under universal suffrage.
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On 23 October 2008, the ANC announced that Mnyamezeli Booi had been appointed Chief Whip of the Majority Party in the National Assembly; he succeeded Nathi Mthethwa, who had been promoted to the cabinet, and was deputised by Gratitude Magwanishe.
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Mnyamezeli Booi held the office only until the next general election in April 2009, after which he was replaced by Mathole Motshekga.
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Mnyamezeli Booi was one of about 30 Members of Parliament who was accused of collaborating with private travel agencies to defraud Parliament and use parliamentary travel vouchers to claim unlawful benefits.
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Mnyamezeli Booi was charged with fraud in relation to several transactions involving a total of R140,000, emanating from his second term in Parliament between 1999 and 2004.
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Mnyamezeli Booi made his first court appearance in the Cape Town Regional Court in February 2005.
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Mnyamezeli Booi insisted that he was innocent of any wrongdoing and he was the only Member of Parliament in the case who refused to enter into a plea bargain with the Scorpions.
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Mnyamezeli Booi held the chair from June 2009 until October 2010, during which time he entered into a public row with Lindiwe Sisulu, then the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans under President Jacob Zuma; the Committee insisted that a particular report by the interim National Defence Force commission should be submitted to Parliament, but Sisulu refused.
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Mnyamezeli Booi was subject to a prolonged investigation by Parliament's ethics committee, which began in mid-2017 when the Democratic Alliance's James Lorimer reported him to Parliament for failing to disclose remuneration received for extra-parliamentary work: Booi had been appointed as a consultant to Lurco Coal, a private company, in late 2015.
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Mnyamezeli Booi did not dispute that he had done the consulting work, but he argued that parliamentary rules did not require him to disclose the contract in 2016 and denied that there was any possible conflict of interest.
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However, when the investigation began, Mnyamezeli Booi expressed regret for the non-disclosure, saying it had been an oversight.
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Mnyamezeli Booi did not stand for re-election to Parliament in the 2019 general election.