DA set to square off with Cabinet in high court over Dudu Myeni’s reappointment to SAA

The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Monday announced it would be taking a decision by Cabinet to reappoint Dudu Myeni as South African Airways board chairwoman on review in the Western Cape High Court.

“The DA is of the strong opinion that there is a prima facie case to be made that Ms Myeni’s reappointment by Cabinet is wholly irrational given her appalling performance as SAA board chairperson over the past four years – overseeing the airline’s steady decline,” DA leader Mmusi Maimane said in a statement.

“Her reappointment not only reeks of nepotism and cronyism so common under the Zuma administration, but it also flies in the face of the need for good governance at State-owned enterprises (SOEs), especially SAA, which is in financial ruins – failing to make a profit for several years – and a whisker away from being liquidated.”

The opposition party would ask the court to set aside Myeni’s appointment on the basis that it was irrational.

“The requirement of rationality obliges courts to engage in an evaluation of the relationship between the means employed to reach a decision on the one hand, and the purpose for which the power to make the decision was conferred, on the other. Each and every step in the process of reaching the decision must be rationally related to the outcome.”

Maimane said court papers would be served on Cabinet in the next few days, and would be followed by an application in the Western Cape High court.

The party would cite various decisions taken by Myeni which had led to the airline becoming cash-strapped.

These include that under her leadership the airline had failed to publish financial statements for the 2015/16 financial year, that she had allegedly run the airline at a loss of R1.3 billion for the first quarter of 2016/17, and that she had “irrationally suspended officials” because they had tried to “curb corruption”.