SAA board chairperson Dudu Myeni may be Zuma's good friend but Nene apparently wants her and her board out.
Despite claiming to be too ill to attend a Parliamentary inquiry into the mismanagement of state entities, Dudu Myeni this week offered to hand deliver her doctor’s certificate to the chair of Parliament’s committee on public enterprises, Zukiswa Rantho.
Rantho, still in disbelief over the call, told the Mail & Guardian on Wednesday, how Myeni had contacted her to say she wanted to personally deliver the doctor’s note that would explain her absence from Parliament after she was scheduled to attend the inquiry on three occasions.
“On Monday afternoon, she [Myeni] called me and said she wanted to hand deliver the doctor’s certificate,’ Rantho, an ANC MP, said.
“I then suggested if you are able to hand deliver the doctor’s certificate, then you are able to attend the inquiry,” she said.
Myeni did not respond to Rantho’s suggestion, the ANCP MP said, instead reiterating that she is willing to rebel against her doctor’s orders to personally submit the certificate.
“She just said she will try to do something. She said she’s going to break the instruction she has been given by the doctor,” Rantho said.
In February, the public enterprises committee called Myeni to appear before them and testify at the inquiry, but the former South African Airways chair was a no-show. The same thing occurred in early March when Myeni sent a text message to a committee member, saying she was too poorly to attend.
After failing to produce a doctor’s certificate, a summons for Myeni was delivered to her last known residence. Security blocked the summons from being delivered inside the home. It was left outside her gate.
“I am of the opinion that she did receive the summons, because the security guard would have made sure she received it,” Rantho said.
The committee, meanwhile, has attempted to take similar steps to summon Duduzani Zuma and the Gupta brothers: Ajay, Atul, and Tony. But the Guptas are out of the country and Zuma seems to be on the run, according to Rantho. The house where Zuma is listed to be residing appears to be abandoned, she said.
“The house is like an empty house where there is no-one staying. I believe that he is on the run because ever since the Hawks started arresting people or started to go investigate some residences of other people, he then disappeared,” she said.
The Hawks have arrested people and searched properties linked to the Guptas’ state capture empire.
Rantho said the committee will schedule a meeting next week to discuss a way forward after the summons have failed to make any impact. The inquiry was meant to proceed on Wednesday, but has been postponed because none of the witnesses – including Myeni, the Guptas and Zuma – would attend.
“It’s really frustrating, I’m so fed up of this situation,” she said.