The appeal by disgraced former SAA chair Dudu Myeni against the order of Judge Ronel Tolmay in the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) declaring her a delinquent director – on the basis that, among other reasons, it supposedly violated her constitutional rights – confirms Myeni has no idea of what the Companies Act expects of directors.

That’s the opinion of Emile Myburgh, a Johannesburg attorney, in an article on the BusinessLIVE site.

‘One must ask whether her lawyers have done any research into the topic of delinquent directors. The Companies Act is clear about the type of conduct that can lead a director to be declared delinquent, and the consequences of such an order. These include personal liability for debts of the company, in addition to criminal liability,’ he writes.

He notes, too, that Myeni’s lawyers appear to have missed the 2017 SCA decision of Gihwala v Grancy Property Ltd, in which the directors challenged the constitutionality of the delinquency provisions of the Companies Act, without success.

The court said about an order of delinquency: 'Its purpose is to protect the investing public, whether sophisticated or unsophisticated, against the type of conduct that leads to an order of delinquency, and to protect those who deal with companies against the misconduct of delinquent directors.'

Myburgh added: ‘The SCA’s view is that the rights of those who suffer due to the actions of delinquent directors are more important than the putative constitutional rights of the directors. One can only admire the courage of Myeni’s legal team to try an argument that has already been scathingly dismissed by the very court she is now turning to. A quick glance at the case law on delinquent directors makes it clear that Myeni, like so many delinquent directors before her, should expect no mercy from the SCA.’

Full article on BusinessLIVE site