Hat Trick for OUTA in the case against Dudu Myeni
Court finds against Dudu Myeni again and issues cost order.
Dudu Myeni just lost for a third time against the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) in their case to have her declared a delinquent director. In March 2017 OUTA and the SAA Pilots' Association (SAAPA) brought an application in the Pretoria High Court to declare Myeni a delinquent director in terms of section 162(5) of the Companies Act. The application is based on her conduct while being chairperson of the SAA board from December 2012 until October 2017 when she left the board. During those five years (2012/13 to 2016/17)‚ SAA ran up losses amounting to billions of Rands although it had previously been profitable.
This is believed to have been the first application brought to declare a director of a state-owned entity (SOE) a delinquent director.
Myeni brought three applications against OUTA and SAAPA, attempting to derail the case after failing to appear at court initially. First, she asked the court if she could change her plea to the case, although she had filed this plea more than two years earlier. She then asked the court to join all the other SAA directors of that time to the case, so that they could share any blame. Myeni also applied to the court to block OUTA from bringing the case, claiming that OUTA did not have legal standing to do this. The court ruled against Myeni in all three matters, and also ordered that she pays the wasted cost for the delays as well as the failed applications.
In her judgement, Judge Ronel Tolmay found that OUTA meets the requirement of public interest, as the organisation represents the interest of taxpayers, who is partly footing the bill for SAA. The Court also found that it is in the interest of justice to allow OUTA to proceed with the application alongside SAAPA.