SAA chair framed as ‘offshore fat cat’
Forged bank accounts show R250m in Paris bank
AN international plot to wrest control of multibillion-rand contracts at South African Airways has been uncovered after board chairwoman Dudu Myeni was threatened with exposure as an offshore multimillionaire.
Myeni, the airline’s combative chair and head of the Jacob Zuma Foundation, was drawn into a bizarre web of intrigue this week after the leak of a cache of fake documents purporting to uncover a R240-million stash in France and Austria.
Documents and stamped bank statements surfaced indicating that Interpol had made a formal application to discover à17.7- million in an account at BNP Paribas bank in Paris and à817 000 in a second account at Bank Austria in Vienna.
The documents were circulated to the office of the president, the public protector and National Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega. The police’s Solomon Makgale said no division of the police had requested an investigation into Myeni.
The Sunday Times has found the documents, which include signed copies of bank statements, to be fraudulent.
The SAA board has appointed Edward Nathan Sonnenbergs to investigate and the firm confirmed the Sunday Times findings based on a preliminary investigation.
The firm’s George van Niekerk said that Myeni did not hold any foreign bank accounts.
“The authorities are aware of the forgeries, and we are liaising with them,” said Van Niekerk.
Since joining the board at the end of 2012, Myeni has fought battles on numerous fronts, including facing down accusations of dereliction of duty and altering the financing terms for 10 new aircraft.
An attempt to oust her instead saw the removal of six SAA directors and the formation of a new SAA board, formed around her.
Myeni then suspended CEO Monwabisi Kalawe, leading to a face-off between Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown and the chairwoman, as Brown insisted the suspension be lifted. Zuma ended the impasse by transferring SAA to the Treasury in December last year.
The leak initially raised questions about how Myeni had amassed such wealth. According to its 2013 annual report, she earned R505 000 in fees from the parastatal as a non-executive director.
SAA spokesman Tladi Tladi said the leaked documents had the “hallmarks of an elaborate conspiracy” designed to destabilise the SAA board. He said it was significant that the documents were released along with a call for the reinstatement of Kalawe, whose disciplinary hearing is scheduled for March 13. Tladi said there was currently no tender out for the procurement of wide-bodied aircraft, adding that “allegations that Myeni stood to personally gain” from this non-existent deal were without any substance.
The paper trail indicates that whoever was behind the leak went to great lengths to produce documents that initially appeared to be authentic, even using an existing account at BNP Paribas, but swapping the legitimate account holder’s name with that of Duduzile Cynthia Myeni.
The documents included a “surveillance request” from the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) — a Luxembourg banking regulator — in compliance with an “Interpol request for surveillance” of account 00010084349 at BNP Paribas.
The attached detailed bank statement, reflecting transactions between January and December 31 last year, indicates the available balance to be à17.7- million (about R231million). CSSF secretariat general member Patrick Hommel has said: “We can confirm that the document (dated February 10) . . . is a fake.”
BNP Paribas spokeswoman Sarah Worsley also dismissed the account as a fake.
The Sunday Times traced the account to the European School of Haematology in Paris, which is investigating the issue.
Bank Austria spokesman Volker Moser said a signed bank statement on an official letterhead, reflecting that Myeni had à817 000 (about R10.6-million) in account 000 1005 2173, was also fraudulent.
We can confirm that the document (dated February 10) … is a fake