Transport minister Fikile Mbalula warned Zolani Matthews months before he was fired as head of the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) that the board had hatched a plan to remove him just six months into the job.
In a series of text messages, Mbalula told Matthews that Prasa board chair Leonard Ramatlakane saw him as a threat to his “self-enrichment” scheme at the state-owned entity and was leading the charge to have him ousted.
In one of the messages the minister also said Ramatlakane was lobbying people close to President Cyril Ramaphosa to remove him from his cabinet post.
Matthews, fighting to get his job back after being fired three months ago, has included copies of the text messages in his submissions to an arbitration case being heard by retired judge Robert Nugent. He argues that his dismissal was unfair and unlawful.
The text messages to July last year, three months before the board suspended Matthews for having failed to disclose that he held dual South African and British citizenship. He was fired a few weeks later, on December 2.
In a message on July 2, Mbalula told Matthews: “They have made up their mind about you that you [are] not the right person for Prasa.”
Another message sent on August 25 said: “[Ramatlakane] thinks you are a stumbling block to that [self-enrichment] agenda because he doesn’t know you, hence he was overwhelmed by Thandeka’s cooperation.” Thandeka Mabija, who has since died, was Prasa’s group executive for human resources.
From that point he realised his three-year self-enrichment scheme is in danger. He then started lobbying people next to the President
— Alleged text message from transport minister Fikile Mbabula
“He came to me lobbying for her to be your second-in-command. I refused,” the message said.
“From that point he realised his three-year self-enrichment scheme is in danger. He then started lobbying people next to the President that I should be removed. They had targeted your probation as a basis for your removal hence they frustrated your decision making etc.
“Secondly they worked with the director-general at SSA [State Security Agency] and your friend to try and deal with your security clearance that you have a British passport and you must forsake your British citizenship hence your clearance is still amiss. This [sic] are just some of the issues I’ve being dealing with quietly. I know their agenda.”
Mbalula, who represents the government as the shareholder of Prasa, has authority over the Prasa board.
Asked this week why, in the light of the text messages, he had taken no action against the board, the minister said: “I can’t comment on matters that are argued before the arbitration whether correct or incorrect. I am constrained by that.”
Ramatlakane, asked about Mbalula’s allegations, told the Sunday Times: “I don’t know anything about that, the best people to answer are the people who were exchanging text messages. I can’t speculate. I don’t know, nor can I answer questions about things I was never involved in.”
Matthews has now challenged Mbalula to confirm to Nugent that he sent the messages.
The sacked Prasa CEO says in his submissions that the board used “every trick” to get rid of him. He says that in July and October Ramatlakane “unjustifiably” reduced his performance scores as a pretext to fire him.
Matthews says that in November Ramatlakane asked him to meet Prasa board member Smanga Sethene, an advocate, who told him the board wanted to terminate his contract because of poor performance. Matthews says he then handed Ramatlakane a dossier of evidence proving the contrary, but received no response.
“When his efforts in this regard were successfully challenged, Mr Ramatlkane then sought to rely on my failure to disclose my dual citizenship and/or my failure to obtain Top Secret security clearance as a reason for my suspension and ultimate termination of employment,” says Matthews in the affidavit.
In firing the CEO, Prasa said his dual citizenship was “a material breach” that he should have disclosed, and he had failed to secure clearance from the SSA.
Matthews has British citizenship because his father, the late struggle stalwart Joe Matthews, lived in exile in the UK.
University of the Witwatersrand School of Governance associate professor William Gumede said Mbalula was in dereliction of duty by failing to act against the board for Matthews’ dismissal. “The Minister is the representative of the shareholder, so the Minister must act in the interest of the company and the shareholders who are the citizens of the country,” he said. “If you are a shareholder and something is wrong, you are responsible if you don’t act.”
In an affidavit submitted to the Labour Court on December 29, before the matter was referred for arbitration, Mbalula said he had no power to hire or fire Matthews because he was hired by the board, and he only had authority over the board.
William Gumede, an associate professor at the Wits University School of Governance, said the text messages appeared to show dereliction of duty by Mbalula.
“The minister is the representative of the shareholder, so [he] must act in the interest of the company and the shareholders, who are the citizens of the country,” he said. “If you are a shareholder and something is wrong, you are responsible if you don’t act.”
Prasa, which is in dire financial straits, has had no permanent CEO since Lucky Montana was fired in 2015. It is struggling to pay service providers and owes the City of Tshwane R28m in unpaid bills.
Last year the auditor-general told parliament that Prasa had achieved only 17.5% of its planned financial targets in 2019/2020, its worst achievement in eight years. The AG issued a disclaimer of audit opinion.
The agency has also failed to get its commuter trains running due to theft and vandalism of its infrastructure.
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