Myeni ‘delinquent’ case glitch

OUTA CASE: EX-SAA BOSS FAILS TO APPEAR IN COURT DESPITE TRIAL DATE BEING SET LAST YEAR

Her excuse was apparently that she doesn’t have money to travel to court.

Former SAA chairperson Dudu Myeni failed to appear at the High Court in Pretoria yesterday in a case brought against her by the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) and the SAA Pilots’ Association (SAAPA).

Her excuse was apparently that she doesn’t have enough money to travel to court, though she had previously said she intended to contest the case.

The groups are trying to have the controversial Myeni, a close friend of former president Jacob Zuma, declared a delinquent director for her fiduciary conduct.

Outa said in a statement yesterday that Myeni “called Outa’s legal team this morning to say she can’t afford to get to Pretoria for the case against her” despite the fact that Myeni had known about the date since February last year.

They said they were ready at the court “for the start to the delinquent director case against Myeni, but she didn’t arrive”.

Instead, she called in with her excuse, they said, which they had to pass on to the court, since her lawyer was not even present.

Yesterday’s trial date had already been set in February 2018, they pointed out.

Judge Ronel Tolmay rolled the case over until today, to give Myeni a last chance to appear. If she fails to appear today, the case is expected to continue without her.

The application was launched on March 7, 2017 by Outa and SAAPA against Myeni. SAA and Air Chefs (Myeni was a director of both these SOEs at the time) and the minister of finance (who was responsible for SAA at the time) were also cited as respondents, Outa has explained.

Myeni served on the SAA board from 2012 to 2017, with the finances of the state-owned company reaching perilous levels.

“During Myeni’s tenure as chairperson‚ SAA ran up losses of R16.844 billion over five years (2012-13 to 2016-17)‚ despite the fact that SAA was profitable from 200910 to 2011-12,” Outa said.

“This is believed to be the first application for delinquency against a director of a stateowned enterprise. Such a declaration would block her from holding any positions as a director,” added Outa, which believes such an action is crucial to restore accountability in SOEs.