SAA board in bid to eject truant chair

The board of unprofitable state-owned airline South African Airways (SAA) has finally had enough of chairwoman Duduzile Myeni, and wants her removed.

This emerges from sensational leaked minutes of an SAA board meeting on May 29 when directors resolved that Myeni had "neglected or been derelict in the performance of her duties". They agreed that a process to have her removed "should be instituted".

Myeni has been at loggerheads with a number of other SAA directors for some months, but the minutes show just how deep the rift is.

The request to remove her will come as an embarrassment to Myeni, who chairs the Jacob Zuma Foundation and is seen as particularly close to the president. Myeni's appointment in December 2012 was controversial owing to her poor track record and lack of experience in the airline industry.

Myeni's wide-ranging failures were exhaustively detailed at the SAA board meeting, which she failed to attend - against the advice of company secretary Sandile Dlamini.

Shortly before the meeting, the minutes say, she wrote an e-mail in which she purported to "suspend all board activities". Dlamini "advised her against [that] decision, and requested she take the matter to the board at this meeting".

But Myeni did not pitch up.

Andile Mabizele, another director who chaired the meeting in Myeni's absence, said the "board has been operating without the leadership of the chair".

Another director asked at what point the board should approach the shareholder, being government, with a request that it appoint another chairperson or get Myeni "to do her work".

Myeni had not replied to questions from this newspaper at the time of going to print.

The board split led to high-level talks which took place this week between Brown, Myeni and the rest of the board.

Brown's spokesman, Mayihlome Tshwete, confirmed that discussions were taking place "about some of the issues which have been raised".

Tshwete said there was no new call for Myeni's ousting at this week's discussions, saying: "I would not give the impression that everything can be pinned on the chair - issues were raised by both sides, including boards and management."

Still, he admitted, "there are very solid differences [between board members] that appear quite concrete, that do not look like they will go away".

But Tshwete said Brown was not likely to ignore this case, and would make "some clear interventions around this matter".

"The minister won't take kindly to anybody in SAA that flouts governance and compromises the position SAA is in," he said.

The board minutes paint a damning picture of Myeni as a truant director not taking her role as chairwoman of the national airline seriously.

In one case, she evidently failed to respond to a letter from public protector Thuli Madonsela. In another, she failed to send out a "round-robin resolution" to decide how many A320 aircraft SAA needed, a crucial decision in the airline's long-term turnaround strategy.

Myeni also stood accused of misspending SAA's money. The minutes said she "offered to reimburse SAA an amount to be determined".

In a report on the "effectiveness of the board", Dlamini said the board could use the Companies Act, which "provides for the removal of a director" who had failed in his or her duties.

The airline is still living on the R5-billion government guarantee that it was given in 2012. It posted a R425-million loss last year, and is set for another loss this year.

Critics have claimed that Myeni, described by former colleagues as "work shy", is not the right person to preside over the board at such a crucial time.

This is not the first time a board of a state-owned entity has tried to get rid of her.

In 2012, Myeni was removed from the Mhlathuze Water Board, a position she held from 2006, over claims of maladministration, abuse of resources and noncompliance with procurement and tender processes.

She was reinstated 11 days later after lobbying Zuma. Myeni's relationship with him is said to date back two decades.

She has reportedly stayed at Zuma's houses, including Nkandla, for weeks on end. Their sons attended the same school.