South Africa - Pretoria - 20 February 2020 - Former SAA board chairperson Dudu Myeni appears in the North Gauteng High Court, in the Palace of Justice defending a legal action by Outa and the SAA Pilot Association to declare her a delinquent director while at the helm at the nation airliner for six years. Picture: Thobile Mathonsi/African News Agency(ANA)
Dudu Myeni loses bid to suspend delinquency order against her
By Baldwin Ndaba
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FORMER SAA board chairperson Dudu Myeni has lost her bid to suspend the execution of a life-time delinquency order issued against her in the North Gauteng High Court in May last year.
SAA has been unable to produce an annual report and annual financial statements for the past three financial years.
If all goes well, South African Airways could exit its business rescue process by the end of February.
On Wednesday, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan and his department provided an update on progress made with SAA s business rescue process.
Gordhan said the interim SAA board will remain in place for the next few months.
If all goes well, South African Airways (SAA) could exit its business rescue process by the end of February this year - in other words, in a few weeks time.
SAA Pilots' Association chair Grant Back says some pilots resigned from the union in desperation in order to try and secure payment of a salary settlement amount, but hadn't received it
Dudu Myeni loses bid to appeal delinquent director finding In May, a judge found she was dishonest, reckless and grossly negligent in her conduct as chair of SAA By Katharine Child - 23 December 2020 Former SAA chair Dudu Myeni must immediately step down from any directorships she holds. Image: Raymond Preston
Former SAA chair Dudu Myeni has lost her bid to appeal the finding that declared her a delinquent director and must immediately step down from any directorships she holds.
These include her position on the board of Centlec, a state-owned utility that supplies power to several municipalities, and the Jacob Zuma Foundation.
Read the declaration here.
Judge Ronel Tolmay wrote in her May ruling that Myeni was dishonest, grossly abused her power, was grossly negligent, reckless, and that her actions inflicted substantial harm on SAA.
“She was a director gone rogue,” Tolmay wrote.
In today’s ruling, Tolmay also upheld the enforcement order brought by the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) and the SAA Pilots’ Association (Saapa).
Myeni must abandon her directorships
As a result, Myeni will have to abandon all of her directorships, including her role as chairperson of the Jacob G Zuma Foundation and her position as deputy chairperson of Free State electricity distribution company Centlec.