Dudu’s sweet nothings for Zondo
Ex-SAA chair feared Hawks and NPA were closing in on her
When former SAA chair Dudu Myeni refused to answer questions at the state capture commission hearings this week, she was trying to avoid what happened to Gauteng businessman Edwin Sodi.
Sodi was arrested a day after responding to allegations of corruption against him at the commission. His arrest came after months of investigation by the Hawks.
On advice from her lawyer, Nqabayethu Buthelezi, Myeni refused to answer some of the questions put to her at the commission’s hearings.
Deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo, who heads the commission, warned Myeni that her refusal did not mean that he could not make an adverse finding against her.
Myeni was questioned by Kate Hofmeyr, who was leading evidence.
Hofmeyr said all the evidence against Myeni would be submitted to the judge.
Zondo told Myeni: “When I prepare the report, and I have to make findings, just because you invoked the privilege [not to answer], it does not mean I cannot make findings against you. This is because the evidence I have would be of those witnesses who have given evidence against you, and if I do not have your version I will make findings based only on the versions I have.”
Buthelezi used a recent high court judgment against Myeni to justify his advice to her not to answer questions at the commission.
“The judgment of the Pretoria high court with regard to Miss Dudu Myeni on the delinquency matter [the court declared her a delinquent director] is a very open-ended judgment on all things SAA and the referral thereof to the NPA [National Prosecuting Authority] for investigation and prosecution,” said Buthelezi.
“Our advice therefore to Miss Myeni is that we are holistically exposed. We do not know the scope of the NPA investigation right now. We are going to invoke the right not to self-incriminate because recently media reports say that she is to be arrested. She has that cloud and sword hanging over her.”
The judgment put the collapse of SAA squarely on Myeni’s shoulders. The court held her responsible for the collapse of the SAA-Emirates deal that would have resolved SAA’s financial problems. She was also found to have “displayed complete disregard for public funds” when a deal between SAA and Airbus collapsed.
These are the matters that her lawyers believe may make the authorities interested in questioning Myeni. It was why she was advised not to answer questions put to her this week, with her repeatedly telling Zondo: “Chairperson, may I not answer that question so that I do not incriminate myself?”
However, given the working relationship between the commission and the NPA, it seems only a matter of time before the authorities arrest Myeni.
She is accused of having “facilitated bribes” for former president Jacob Zuma through the JG Zuma Foundation from various entities and individuals, including the controversial Bosasa company.
Her son Thalente allegedly received R2m from the government through his company,
Premier Attraction.
“If it were to be found by this commission that R2m came from proceeds of crime, do you agree that the Jacob Zuma Foundation will have to pay back that money to the national revenue fund?” Hofmeyr asked Myeni.
Myeni was also implicated in having benefited from Bosasa largesse through security upgrades at her home. The improvements cost R500,000. She also reportedly received travel benefits worth about R100,000 and was given cash.
According to former Bosasa executive Angelo Agrizzi, Myeni gave him “confidential police documents” in 2015.
Myeni is also likely to face an adverse finding on evidence that she “deliberately lied” to then public enterprises minister Malusi Gigaba in 2013 about the Pembroke transaction, which entailed selling and leas
ing back aircraft to SAA at a cost of R800m.
Pembroke Capital is an Irish company that deals in aircraft leasing.
Hofmeyr charged: “Your decisions at SAA during your tenure took no account of considerable consequences to the fiscus whenever you had to approach the minister of finance about both the Airbus and Pembroke transactions.”
Other witnesses who appeared before the commission accused Myeni of having arranged for the State Security Agency to “conduct an unlawful vetting operation” of SAA executives and managers whom she wanted to purge during her tenure as board chair.
Most recently she was accused of obstructing law enforcement officials from searching her home. She locked them out for a day last year. She let them in the next day but gave them only limited access.