Dudu Myeni delinquency order takes effect

Pretoria High Court rules that delinquency order takes effect immediately as she is too late to appeal to SCA and condonation of late filing is unlikely

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15/02/2021 15:14:52

Dudu Myeni delinquency order takes effect


Today the Pretoria High Court struck off the roll Dudu Myeni’s application against her delinquency order. This means she must immediately withdraw from all remaining directorships, including of the Jacob Zuma Foundation.

Her application was struck off, not dismissed, which means that the merits of the application were not considered, following the hearing by the full bench of the high court during the first week of February.

“We are obviously delighted at this latest order of the court, in what has become a drawn-out affair regarding Dudu Myeni’s delinquency status, for which we have worked long and hard,” says Advocate Stefanie Fick who heads up OUTA’s Accountability Division. “OUTA is committed to seeing this matter through to the end and now awaits the Supreme Court of Appeal’s decision on Ms Myeni’s appeal petition.”


Sequence of events

In May 2020, the high court declared former SAA chair Myeni a delinquent director for life, arising from an application by OUTA and the SAA Pilots’ Association (SAAPA).

In June 2020, Myeni filed an application for leave to appeal, which automatically suspended the delinquency order until her appeal was finalised.

In December 2020, OUTA and SAAPA won an interim enforcement order against Myeni, which meant that the delinquency order takes effect even if an appeal is pending; at the same time, Myeni lost an application to the Pretoria High Court for leave to appeal.

In February 2021, Myeni appealed that interim enforcement order to a full bench of the Pretoria High Court, pending an attempt to appeal against the main order through the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA), although such an application had not been filed at the SCA.

The high court has now ruled that her application for leave to appeal the main order in the SCA has lapsed as it was not filed before the deadline of 22 January 2021. Although Myeni may apply to the SCA for condonation of late filing, the court said that until that happens, there is no appeal. The court also said that although her delay in filing to the SCA was negligible, her prospects of succeeding in a condonation application “are rather slim”. Thus, as there is no appeal against the main order pending, her application to appeal the interim enforcement order was struck off.

“The appeal must clearly be struck off,” ruled the court, and ordered Myeni to pay her costs and those of OUTA-SAAPA.

 

 

More information

A soundclip with comment by OUTA CEO Wayne Duvenage is here.

Today’s judgment by the full bench of the Pretoria High Court is here.

The main judgment of 27 May 2020, which declared Myeni a delinquent director for life and referred the matter to the National Prosecuting Authority, is here.

For more on the December 2020 applications, see here.

More information on this case is available here.

Picture: OUTA