EDITORIAL: Mbalula’s chilling disregard for the law

Its trains have not been running for three years, but the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) has certainly been keeping the lawyers busy, at taxpayers’ cost obviously.

Needless to say, much of this seems unnecessary.

On November 29 2021, just eight months after being appointed CEO of Prasa, Zolani Kgosie Matthews was dismissed because he had failed to disclose that he had dual South African and British citizenship. This seems a trifling complaint, considering that this was also largely due to his long period of exile, as the son of struggle stalwart Joe Matthews.

Matthews said he had never concealed his dual citizenship — but Prasa justified his dismissal by saying that, as a foreigner, he couldn’t get top-secret security clearance, and argued that he performed poorly in the job. 

Matthews challenged his dismissal in the labour court. On January 24, both parties withdrew the matter from court and agreed to go to arbitration. Retired judge Robert Nugent, who conducted the South African Revenue Service governance and administration inquiry in 2018, was appointed as the arbitrator.

On April 14, Nugent announced his decision: “Prasa must promptly reinstate Mr Matthews to the position of group CEO” and pay all costs.

Nugent noted that “a glaring omission from Prasa’s papers is any explanation why his dual citizenship was material to his employment”. On the question of security, he found no explanation from Prasa “why clearance at the level of Top Secret was required”. Prasa had also raised the issue of dormant companies in which Matthews had an interest, but Nugent found no conflict.  

He concluded that “there were no adequate grounds for terminating Mr Matthews’ employment [which] was manifestly unfair and thus unlawful”.

But it was what happened next which leaves yet another sulphurous cloud hanging over transport minister Fikile Mbalula.

Though both parties had undertaken to honour the arbitration decision, Prasa took the matter on review. It is due to be heard next year. Mbalula has now said he plans to announce a new CEO for Prasa in December, in direct contravention of Nugent’s arbitration decision.

It reeks of a concerted effort to oust Matthews.

Nugent’s decision reveals that Prasa couldn’t make up its mind about why it wanted Matthews gone, but in any case, all its possible justifications were spurious.

A cynic would wonder if he had uncovered yet more corruption in an organisation that has been crippled by this scourge for years.

Certainly, there seems no justification for Prasa to ignore the arbitration order, when both parties agreed it “would be final and binding and not subject to appeal”.

It speaks to Mbalula’s wider disregard for the law — an attitude underscored when he also appealed against the recent order from the Makhanda high court, ordering him to do his job by protecting the safety of passengers of bus company Intercape.

Unfortunately, it’s not just limited to “Mr Fixfokol”. 

The department of correctional services’ decision to appeal against the Constitutional Court ruling, which ordered that the decision to release Jacob Zuma on medical parole was unlawful, indicates the same disregard for the judiciary that you see routinely in the governing ANC. 

Perhaps, to prevent the further waste of taxpayers’ money, officials who indulge their baser instincts should be told to pay the costs of their actions personally, when their pointless appeals ultimately go nowhere.