High court hears why Myeni couldn’t afford to make court appearance

Former South African Airways (SAA) board chairperson Dudu Myeni continues her testimony in the High Court in Pretoria on Friday to challenge a case in which Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse’s (Outa) alongside the SA Pilots Association seeks to have her declared a delinquent director.

Myeni is testifying her own defence in her long-anticipated trial filed by the two organisations who approached the court early in 2017 with an application to have her declared a delinquent director.

While the trial kicked off last month, Myeni fielded a question on the reasons why she could not arrive in court in October last year.

Myeni had told Outa’s legal team that she could not afford to travel to Pretoria to attend the case. This resulted in the court rolling the matter over to a later date.

Asked if her statement that she could not make court appearance was true, considering she had earned over R7 million in 2017, she maintained she did not have the means as she was “unemployed”.

To a question that she didn’t save any money from her package to come to court, Myeni responded she was not aware that she had to save money for a possible court case.

The court heard how there was insurance which would have covered directors and Myeni reiterated that this would have covered her court matters had circumstances remained the same.

The director’s insurance, she told the court, could cover all directors for possible legal woes.

She maintains her initial statement where she claimed to not have the means to go to court was true.

Myeni is said to have earned around R3.5 million from the water board and over R4 million from SA Airways.

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