Another ruling against delinquent director Myeni
Former SAA chair Dudu Myeni has been dealt yet another blow in her attempts to halt the implementation of a ruling from 2020 which found her to be a delinquent director.
The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) sought an enforcement order to stop her from continuing to serve as a director pending her attempts to appeal the delinquency ruling.
And yesterday, notes Fin24, a full Bench of the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) dismissed an application to appeal an earlier ruling that the delinquency ruling can be enforced even while she attempts to take it on appeal to the SCA.
Myeni must immediately stop serving as a director of any company. She also has to relinquish her position as the chair of the Jacob Zuma Foundation.
Outa CEO Wayne Duvenage said the organisation welcomed the latest decision.
‘It is something we have asked for, namely that the delinquency ruling stands. We are happy with the outcome and with our costs being granted. Her attempts are turning into a comedy of errors,’ he said.
The three judges upheld the argument put forward by the counsel for Outa and the SAA Pilots’ Association (Saapa) last Monday, notes a Daily Maverick report.
On behalf of Outa and Saapa, Advocate Carol Steinberg said that Myeni’s right to petition the SCA to appeal against the main ruling made in May last year that declared her a delinquent director had lapsed as she had submitted her SCA petition late.
On 3 February, Myeni petitioned the SCA to dismiss the delinquent director for life declaration issued by Judge Ronel Tolmay on 27 May last year, but she filed the court documents seven days late.
‘It is therefore common cause before us that the application for leave to appeal to the SCA was not filed timeously in terms of the one-month period for application for leave to appeal to the SCA,’ the three judges wrote.
‘We further hold the view that, although the length of the delay in filing the application for leave to appeal to the SCA is negligible… the prospects of the appellant succeeding with her condonation application to the SCA are rather slim. The appeal must clearly be struck off. In respect of costs, both parties were ad idem that this is a self-standing application and that costs should follow the result,’ they added.
Article disclaimer: While we have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this article, it is not intended to provide final legal advice as facts and situations will differ from case to case, and therefore specific legal advice should be sought with a lawyer.
