Former South African Airways (SAA) board chairperson Dudu Myeni is in negotiations with the State to plead guilty to disclosing the name of a protected witness at the Judicial Inquiry into State Capture. 

Myeni appeared briefly in the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court on Tuesday in a case relating to her naming a witness known only as Mr X.

Myeni mentioned the name of the person she said she assumed was Mr X in public testimony in February 2020, despite being cautioned by the inquiry's chairperson, Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, that the witness would remain anonymous.

"I am disappointed that you did this, especially after I said I made an order that his identity should not be revealed," Zondo told Myeni at the time. 

Phindi Mjonondwane, the National Prosecuting Authority's (NPA) regional spokesperson for Gauteng, said on Tuesday that the state and Myeni were in the process of negotiating a plea and sentencing agreement.

The NPA is hoping the agreement will be finalised by 27 July when Myeni appears in court again.

The first part of the State Capture Inquiry report, released in January, recommended probes into Myeni and the affairs of numerous former high-ranking SAA officials who served under her.

This included Myeni illegally disclosing the identity of the whistleblower; what happened to millions of rands that allegedly flowed into the bank accounts of Myeni and the Jacob Zuma Foundation from a housing project in the Free State; and whether Myeni is guilty of fraud for "knowingly" misrepresenting decisions taken by SAA's board to two finance ministers.