DAYS OF ZONDO
Dudu Myeni plans to plead guilty to obstructing justice after naming State Capture witness Mr X
The Johannesburg Magistrates’ Court was ready to deal with the matter of the delinquent director’s arrest warrant over her previous failure to appear – then things took a dramatic turn.
Former SAA chairperson Dudu Myeni will plead guilty to revealing the identity of a protected witness during her testimony at the Zondo State Capture Commission in November 2020.
Myeni was charged with obstructing the administration of justice after she revealed the identity of the witness known as Mr X at the commission in November 2020, despite a strict order from commission chairperson Justice Raymond Zondo that the name be withheld.
Mr X had implicated her in allegedly dodgy deals involving the Mhlathuze Water Board and a housing contract from the Mpumalanga government.
A warrant of arrest was issued last month after she failed to show up at court, where her lawyer, Nqabayethu Buthelezi, said his client’s absence was owing to health concerns.
But the case took a dramatic turn when Myeni appeared briefly in the Johannesburg Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday.
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Gauteng spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane told Daily Maverick that Myeni would be entering a plea and sentence agreement.
“The matter has been postponed to 27 July to conclude the 105A negotiations to negotiate and enter into an agreement with the accused. We will consult with the complainant and bring the investigating officer aboard in the negotiations. We hope to conclude the agreement before the next appearance and file it in court,” Mjonondwane said.
The NPA further indicated that no prescribed minimum sentence exists for the crime Myeni is alleged to have committed, and she may get away with a fine or suspended sentence.
After being investigated for prosecution over her role in State Capture at SAA, where she was a director and later chairperson, Myeni has emerged as a critical participant in State Capture.
Dudu Myeni arrives to testify in her SAA delinquency case at the Pretoria High Court on 20 February 2020. (Photo: Gallo Images / Phill Magakoe)
The State Capture Commission’s report – the first part of which was released in January 2022 – paints Myeni, a personal friend of former president Jacob Zuma, as meddling, paranoid, incompetent, prone to intimidating board members and staff, and as having acted with “corrupt intent” throughout her time at the national carrier.
Myeni’s next battle is to challenge the declaration that she is a delinquent director for life. Her appeals have been rejected by three judges who upheld the argument by counsel for the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) and the SAA Pilots’ Association (Saapa).
Outa and Saapa filed the original application in 2017 to declare Myeni a delinquent director due to her disastrous reign as SAA chairperson.
In May 2020, the high court declared Myeni a delinquent director and banned her for life from holding any directorship position. She was further ordered to abandon all her directorships, including her roles as SAA chairperson, executive chairperson of the Jacob Zuma Foundation and deputy chairperson of Free State electricity distribution company Centlec. In April 2021, the Supreme Court of Appeal dismissed one of her two appeals against the delinquent-for-life ruling.
Myeni will be back in court on 27 July 2022. DM
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As usual a slap on the wrist for causing untold damage to South Africa due to her cadre employment and being totally incompetent. She has millions to live on so why should she be worried about not being a director of a company again. If I were her I would be ashamed to show my face in public again.
The poor suffer the most from the likes of her but yet continue to vote for the cadre friendly ANC.
You are so right, but what we must all realise/remember is that these people have absolutely no shame or compunction.
Hence they always deny, redirect, deflect and everything else they can do even though they are (they know and so does everyone else know) as guilty as sin.
There are dozens of them around, blatantly showing themselves and flaunting their misdemeanors in our faces.
Hopefully the plea agreement includes that Dudu Myeni turns state witness on a host of her other involvements with former prisoner Jacob Zuma. Hell knows no fury like a woman scorned (or left holding the nappy) and this budgie can sing and sing
I still cant comprehend the fact that we are such banana republic that we the people allowed someone with zero business experiance to run an airline, one of the toughest jobs in the world where even the brightest of the bright often fail.
What an upside down country, she destroyed SAA, made people lose their jobs, and all the ANC did was put on plasters(covering state capture shenanigans). Now she can get a plea bargain of a fine or a suspended sentence!!!! A great country for criminals, but beware if you’re a law abiding tax paying working class citizen, or part of youth that have dreams, what a joke !!!! NO actually a tragedy where bad is good and good is bad
Lock her up!
It’s a disgrace that she won’t serve time. The fine must take cognisance of her career as ANC the able enabler and collector of ill-gotten booty. That said she is small fry and the NPA should use this moment to empty her of intel worth having.
It is a fact that whistleblowers in SA place their lives in danger, e.g. Babita Deokaran, etc. Hence the identity of Mr. X was kept secret by the Zondo Commission for good reason. In addition, Myeni had been reminded by Zondo not to disclose the identity of Mr. X. Myeni wilfully revealed the identy of Mr. X & there was no remorse at all. I’m sorry but this breach by the Zondo Commission is a matter of life & death to Mr. X. Any option of a fine is inappropriate & an effective custodial sentence of at least a year should be mandatory.
Three Hail Marys and a promise not to do it again, He,He, He