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A cat and mouse game seems to have ensued between an elusive former SAA board chairperson Dudu Myeni and the parliamentary portfolio committee on public enterprises, which is probing mismanagement at state-owned enterprises.
Myeni snubbed the committee on Wednesday when she failed to avail herself for the proceedings choosing instead to send the committee an SMS text notifying them of her absence.
In the text, Myeni said that her lawyer needed more time to consider the legal implications of her attending the inquiry.
Chairperson of the inquiry, Zukiswa Rantho, shed light on Myeni’s reasoning.
“We were expecting Ms Dudu Myeni, however, we have been informed that she is not coming. We wrote her a letter inviting her to the inquiry and she responded by sending an SMS to the committee’s secretary”, said Rantho.
“They will look at the legalities of coming to the inquiry and will come back to us in writing. She has apologised for being unavailable via an SMS,” added Rantho.
Enraged MPs who saw this as a mere delaying tactic bordering on undermining the process of the Committee said: “Myeni should be summoned to appear next week.”
A visibly annoyed DA member of Parliament Natasha Mazzone said, “I would request that we immediately issue a summons. You are given an opportunity by this committee to come and appear before us voluntarily and unless you live in a complete bubble of denial, everyone knows what this committee is doing so to claim that her [Myeni’s] lawyer hasn’t been following the committee is just not an acceptable excuse.
“Chair I’ve been on this committee for a very long time as you know and this is the typical modus operandi of the particular individual [Myeni] in question,” explained Mazzone.
Myeni who was replaced by Johannes Bhekumuzi Magwaza as chairperson of loss-making state-owned airline South African Airways (SAA) in October 2017 was expected to shed some light on testimony given by former Eskom board chairperson Zola Tsotsi.
In a testimony before the inquiry late last year, Tsotsi implicated Myeni in state capture at Eskom.
He told the inquiry that she called him to a meeting with then-president Jacob Zuma in March 2015 to discuss the suspension of three executives at the power utility.
“I was called by Dudu Myeni. She said that I should avail myself for an audience with the president, and declined to discuss any details over the phone.”
Tsotsi went on to claim that, on the agenda were Eskom’s three executives at the time – acting chief executive Tshediso Matona, group executive for group capital Dan Marokane, and group executive for commercial Matshela Koko – who according to Myeni had to be suspended. The former Eskom board chairperson also claimed that former president Zuma was present during this conversation.
The appointment of Pravin Gordhan to the role of public enterprises minister is seen by many as a move to turn around the rot within the troubled state-owned enterprises particularly the SAA and Eskom.
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