‘Myeni sank R1.4bn deal’

The High Court in Pretoria has heard how former South African Airways (SAA) chairperson Dudu Myeni allegedly sank a deal between the failing airline and Emirates Airlines via WhatsApp.

It was hearing testimony from former chief executive Nico Bezuidenhout.

SAA was placed into business rescue in December, with accrued losses of R28 billion over the last 13 years.

Testifying in a court application by the Organisation Against Tax Abuse (Outa) and the SAA Pilots’ Association (Saapa) to have Myeni declared a delinquent director, Bezuidenhout told the court that Myeni pulled out of the deal hours before an official signing in Paris.

The benefits of the proposed deal included a code-sharing relationship involving a daily service between Johannesburg and Dubai, which guaranteed annual revenue of R1.4 billion.

Bezuidenhout had previously testified that this was just one of the deals which could have made SAA profitable by 2018, but which Myeni scuppered.

He claimed that numerous aviation industry experts, as well as the rest of the board had supported the deal.

A day before the signing, he still had not received the go-ahead to sign the deal, prompting Emirates to approach then president Jacob Zuma directly.

“I got a call from Ms Myeni at about 2am. She was furious and accused [me] of having embarrassed the country and the president.”

He claimed she informed him that Zuma did not want him to sign the deal, before confirming this later via a WhatsApp message.