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Cape Town – The confirmation by the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) that South African Airways (SAA) chairperson Dudu Myeni’s extended term was illegitimate means any board decisions taken since September 1 should be viewed as irregular.
That is according to a statement by Democratic Alliance MP Alf Lees on Saturday, following the CIPC’s revelation that it wrote to Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba to inform him of the illegality of Myeni’s extension.
This is in terms of SAA’s memorandum of incorporation (MOI) – which stipulates that a chair can only serve three terms – and the Companies Act. Myeni’s third term expired at the end of August. In addition, SAA had 10 days to file a notice of Myeni’s extension with the CIPC, which it has not done.
Parliament’s standing committee of finance on Wednesday gave Gigaba seven days to review his decision to extend Myeni’s term, which Gigaba said had to be done as a new chair can only be elected at the airline’s AGM. While this should have already taken place, the AGM was delayed to November 3 as the airline had not published its annual report.
Concerns about Myeni’s controversial tenure come after she reportedly said she would only leave when President Jacob Zuma’s term ended. She is a close friend of the president.
Under her leadership, SAA has lost billions of rands and has resulted in the proposed tabling of a special appropriation bill to give the airline a R10bn bailout in October. This is to pay lenders and suppliers.
Lees said that the CIPC has confirmed the DA’s view that Myeni is “technically no longer the chair of the board and that any board decisions taken since the 1st of September 2017 must be viewed as irregular and unenforceable”.
Lees also wants Gigaba held accountable for the “evidently illegal decision” to extend Myeni’s tenure and “for the billions in losses as well as that funding crisis that has been allowed to continue at SAA”.
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