Former South African Airways board chairperson, Dudu Myeni, has acquired the services of legal heavyweight Advocate Dali Mpofu as she plans to appeal the judgment of the Pretoria High Court, which declared her a ‘delinquent director’.
In May, Judge Ronel Tolmay handed down her ruling following an application by the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) and South African Airways Pilots’ Association (Saapa) lodged in March 2017.
Outa and Saapa legal counsel Advocate Carol Steinberg asked the court to declare Myeni a delinquent director, arguing that she was responsible for the financial maladministration at the national airline during her tenure as board chairperson from 2012 until 2017.
In her judgment Tolmay agreed, saying: “This declaration of delinquency is to subsist for the remainder of Ms Myeni’s lifetime.
Myeni, via her legal representatives, then filed an application for leave to appeal the judgement.
In a statement issued on Thursday, Myeni said as part of the appeal she has appointed Mabuza Attorneys as her new attorneys of record.
“I have also employed the services of Adv. Dali Mpofu (SC) while retaining the services of Adv. Nqabayethu Buthelezi,” the statement read.
Myeni on claims that “the judge directly copied and pasted no less than 265 of the 285 paragraphs of the judgment from the Plaintiffs’ written closing arguments”.
“Thus the judgment has created the false impression that the judgment is findings of the court when it is in its entirety the submissions of the Plaintiffs being echoed. Not only does this show clear bias on the part of the judge but shows complete lack of independence. Again it is such conduct on the part of certain judges that continues to undermine public confidence in the judiciary and now has the potential to bring the entire judiciary into disrepute,” the statement said.
She said the leave to appeal application again revealed that she has a strong case on the merits.
“I remain confident that another court showing the expected level of independence and sense of justice will arrive at a different outcome,” she said.