Myeni wants Airbus details kept secret
• Media, DA and Outa await outcome as SAA chairwoman’s lawyers try to keep public out of hearing on validity of compliance notice
As pressure mounts on South African Airways chairwoman Dudu Myeni, on Monday, her lawyers will try to persuade the Companies Tribunal to block the public from attending a hearing into some of the circumstances around the controversial 2013 plan to purchase planes from Airbus.
As pressure mounts on South African Airways (SAA) chairwoman Dudu Myeni, on Monday, her lawyers will try to persuade the Companies Tribunal to block the public from attending a hearing into some of the circumstances around the controversial 2013 plan to purchase planes from Airbus.
The hearing is scheduled for 10am on Monday.
Myeni’s lawyers argue the compliance notice issued to her by the Companies and Intellectual Properties Commission (CIPC) in November 2016 should be declared invalid because the proper process was not followed. Media organisations, the DA and the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) are intent on getting access to a hearing deemed to be of significant public interest.
The DA’s Alf Lees said it was unclear whether he would be allowed to attend the hearing because lawyers for SAA and the CIPC were only due to argue the issue of confidentiality ahead of the hearing.
Lees said he would travel to Pretoria on Monday in the hope of being allowed in. He has been battling in Parliament to get sight of 16 forensic investigations into SAA and wants the parastatal to account for legal bills incurred protecting Myeni.
Tebogo Mputle of the office of the Companies Tribunal registrar told Business Day that the presiding panel retained the right to regulate public access to the hearing. “This will be decided on the day after hearing the parties’ legal representatives.”
The bid to have the compliance notice declared invalid was launched months ago and was seen as an attempt to clean up Myeni’s record ahead of Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba’s decision on her one-year contract as chairwoman of the board, which expires in September.
However, reflecting the speed of political developments, on Thursday, Gigaba told journalists that Myeni’s contract would not be renewed.
Myeni is also facing a legal challenge by Outa, which has launched a high court action to have her declared a delinquent director. Outa’s action targets decisions taken by Myeni, including her appointment of little-known BnP Capital in May 2016 as transaction adviser on the proposed purchase of planes from Airbus. A CIPC compliance notice could be used by Outa to support its charge that Myeni is not fit to be a director.
Outa’s Ben Theron said at the weekend that his organisation would be at the tribunal’s offices on Monday morning.
The compliance notice issued to Myeni in November 2016 related to a board resolution signed in May 2013 approving the purchase of 10 Airbus planes. In June 2013, Myeni wrote to Gigaba, at the time the minister of public enterprises, telling him the board had resolved to lease two planes.
When other SAA board members uncovered the details of the letter, they accused Myeni of altering a board resolution, which is a contravention of the Companies Act.
The CIPC was made aware of the letter and Myeni’s apparent attempt to mislead SAA’s shareholder in 2015.
In early 2017, Myeni informed the CIPC she had complied with the notice.
However, weeks later, her lawyers initiated proceedings to have the notice overturned.