Myeni's out in August and OUTA can't wait

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) welcomes Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba’s confirmation that Dudu Myeni will not serve another term on the board of South African Airways.

Myeni was appointed to the SAA board in October 2009 and has chaired it since 2012.

The one-year extension to her term expires on 31 August. Gigaba has indicated that a new board chair will be appointed at the SAA AGM in August.

“SAA has stumbled from crisis to crisis under the leadership (or lack thereof) of the ill-equipped Dudu Myeni, forcing Treasury to bail out the embattled airline with either direct investments or guarantees,” says Ben Theron, OUTA’s Chief Operating Officer.

“She is not fit to hold any public office whatsoever. The sooner she leaves the better.”

The critical position of CEO must still be filled with a competent and knowledgeable candidate who can start turning this organisation around.  This position is too critical to be a filled with an incompetent deployee. 

SAA continuously posted losses during Myeni’s tenure, the airline was repeatedly bailed outby taxpayers and, in December 2014, the airline’s administration had to be transferred from the Ministry of Public Enterprises to the Ministry of Finance to stabilise the finances. Myeni lied to her board and the Minister regarding the procurement of airplanes and authorised the payment of exorbitant cancellation fees to questionable suppliers.

In June OUTA and the South African Airways Pilots’ Association launched legal proceedings against Myeni, asking the Pretoria High Court to declare her a delinquent director, which would bar her from serving as a director, a senior executive or on any boards for at least seven years. Myeni has denied wrongdoing. Our case continues.

In November last year the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) issued acompliance notice against Myeni, finding that she had breached the duties of a director and ordering her to notify formally the SAA board and Minister of Finance of this. She did so, then tried to get this overturned but this was denied.  

Statement issued by Ben Theron, OUTA Chief Operating Officer, 14 July 2017