Abstract
Corporate governance in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) has been a hotly contested topic in South Africa for the past several years. This is because the country has dealt with numerous corruption-related scandals involving various political and business figures. This dark period in South African history is widely labelled as “State Capture” owing to the fact that certain individuals in prominent positions used state resources for personal gain. On the 4th of January 2022, Part 1 of the State Capture Report was published and it details the leadership failures of SOE boards.1 The following quote encapsulates the failures of SOE boards: “The evidence received by the Commission demonstrates that in many cases and in fundamental respects, the Boards of the SOEs have shirked their responsibilities, or worse, used their powers to corrupt the SOEs which they have been appointed to protect.”2
The former South African Airways chairperson, Ms Dudu Myeni (the First Defendant), was declared a delinquent director for life by the Gauteng Division of the High Court of South Africa (the High Court) on the 27th of May 2020. Her tenure at South African national carrier began in September 2009, when she was appointed as a non-executive director of the board of directors.3 In 2012, the First Defendant was appointed as acting chairperson of SAA.4 She assumed the role of chairperson of the SAA from January 2015 until 2017.5 The High Court’s decision in the case of Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse and Another v Myeni and Others (OUTA v Myeni) considered whether the First Defendant’s conduct during her tenure at the national carrier met the grounds for a declaration of delinquency...