Dudu Myeni's attempt to appeal 'delinquent director' ruling crashes
Image: ESA ALEXANDER
The high court in Pretoria on Tuesday dismissed a bid by former SAA chairperson Dudu Myeni to appeal against an order the court made last month.
In the December 12 order, the court dismissed her special plea that the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) did not have legal standing to bring an application to declare her a delinquent director.
The application by Outa and the SAA Pilots' Association (Saapa) was set to start on Monday but Myeni applied for leave to appeal against the December 12 order.
This application was dismissed by judge Ronel Tolmay on Tuesday, who said it was filed after the 15-day limit had lapsed to note an appeal.
The judge said there was no request by Myeni’s lawyers to condone the delay for the late filing of the application for leave to appeal the order.
The judge also ordered Myeni to pay Outa’s costs for the application within 30 days.
This means the application to declare Myeni a delinquent director can go ahead, unless she launches another application.
In March 2017, Outa and Saapa brought an application to declare Myeni a delinquent director in terms of the Companies Act, based on her actions while chairing the SAA board.
If declared such, Myeni would not be able to be a director in any entity.
Myeni largely ignored the case, until the court hearing began in October 2019.
However, the application by Outa and Saapa was stymied because of preliminary challenges launched by Myeni.
Early in December, the court dismissed two other applications launched by Myeni in the case.
It dismissed her application to amend the plea she made in July 2017. She allegedly wanted to change her plea to deny personal involvement in wrongdoing and shift responsibility to SAA's executive management.
The court also dismissed her application to join 28 other SAA directors in the case.
Myeni said a refusal to allow her to join other board members would lead to a miscarriage of justice because the decisions and conduct alleged by Outa and the pilots' association were that of the board as a collective.