Dudu Myeni: in plane sight
SAA chair’s subterfuge could be cast into the full glare of the public at a companies’ tribunal hearing next week
Having been pushed out of the spotlight for several months by the headline grabbing antics of President Jacob Zuma and the Gupta family, next Monday’s Companies’ Tribunal hearing will give SAA chair Dudu Myeni an opportunity to claim back some media space.
Not that attention is what she and her lawyers are hoping for.
Legal firm ENS, which is acting on behalf of SA Airways, wants as much as possible of the proceedings to remain under a cloak of confidentiality. Confidentiality claims have prevented the Financial Mail from accessing affidavits of any of the parties. At the time of going to press this publication was unable to get certainty about whether or not the hearing would be open to the public.
The hearing relates to efforts to expunge a compliance notice issued to Myeni by the Companies & Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) in November 2016. Though Myeni complied with the notice and was issued with a compliance certificate, she is now claiming CIPC did not have the authority to issue the notice. The attempt to clear her record comes as Myeni faces moves to have her declared a delinquent director. It also comes just months before her one-year term agreed with former finance minister Pravin Gordhan expires in September.
For very good and obvious reasons, hearings of the tribunal — which is responsible for overseeing adherence to the Companies Act — are open to the public unless the parties involved are able to persuade the tribunal otherwise.
Two organisations that will be pushing to ensure transparency are the DA and the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa). In March Outa instituted legal action to have Myeni declared a delinquent director. Outa’s Ben Theron said the outcome of the hearing would have significant implications for their legal action. He said Outa would attend the hearing.
DA MP Alf Lees says the party has been unable to make any progress with attempts to call Myeni to account. It wants the public protector to ascertain
whether there are grounds to prosecute Myeni and other SAA board members for their role in efforts to get little-known BNP Capital intruded into a multibillion rand leasing transaction.
Lees says the DA is also keen to get sight of the more than 16 forensic investigations into SAA and the hefty legal bills that have been incurred protecting Myeni.
The hearing is the latest stage in Myeni’s perplexing handling of a contract to lease 10 Airbus planes. The tribunal’s involvement stems from the compliance notice issued by CIPC after it found Myeni had violated the Companies Act when she failed to produce a board resolution that would prove that in 2013 she had not lied to former public enterprises minister Malusi Gigaba, who at the time represented SAA’S shareholder.
CIPC was made aware of the potential violation through an unsolicited document it received in 2015. It appears that in 2013 the SAA board, with Myeni in attendance, passed a resolution approving the purchase of 10 Airbus planes. However, on June 20 Myeni wrote to Gigaba telling him the board had resolved to lease only two planes. When the other board members got wind of the details of the letter to Gigaba they accused Myeni of unlawfully altering a board resolution. But no action was taken until CIPC was notified in 2015.
The suspicion, which has never been interrogated, is that Myeni may have planned to lease two Airbuses using the well-established Pembroke Capital and subsequently intrude a second leg involving BNP Capital and eight planes. It’s a plan that would have required a high level of state capture to succeed.
SAA did not respond to questions and ENS said it was unable to comment.
Myeni’s attempt to clear her record comes as she faces moves to have her declared a delinquent director