The former board of the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) will now complete its last three months at the agency, after a high court granted their immediate reinstatement on Monday.
Six of seven Prasa board members dismissed by then transport minister Dipuo Peters in March said on Monday they would now seek to finalise a turnaround plan for an agency dogged by years of scandals.
Former board chairman Popo Molefe, Zodwa Manase, Mashile Matlala, William Steenkamp, Clement Manyungwana, and Tefetso Phitsane will now resume their positions with immediate effect.
The court on Monday also overturned a decision to appoint an interim board.
Molefe was said to be out of the country, but Steenkamp said other priorities included stabilising the executive and management, finalising the Prasa turnaround plan, and finalising financial statements.
“As a board, we had no idea of the massive challenges awaiting us when we arrived at the company … we are not so naïve to believe that we not be greeted by resistance and distortions of facts when we are busy correcting the wrongs and shortcomings,” Steenkamp said.
The Prasa board was fired on March 8, about two weeks after it removed then acting CEO Collins Letsoalo for, among other things, allegedly pushing through a 350% salary hike in line with that of former CEO Lucky Montana. Montana left in July 2015, with Autopax CEO Nathi Kena acting as group CEO just before Letsoalo’s appointment a year later.
Letsoalo, a Department of Transport employee, was deployed to Prasa in June 2016 by Peters with instructions to keep an eye on the board.
This was seen to have contributed to a breakdown in relations with the board over who was accountable to whom. Peters, who defended Letsoalo in court papers, had argued he had uncovered more maladministration in months than the board had in years.
Judge Peter Mabuse ruled on Monday that the decision by Peters to remove the board was unreasonable, as the directors denied a fair hearing.
The court also concluded that the evidence suggested no wrongdoing on the part of Letsoalo.
Prasa referred questions to the Department of Transport, which said it was studying the judgment. The DA said it would seek convincing reassurances that the Department of Transport would not interfere in the final months of the new board, pending finalisation of anticorruption and maladministration probes.
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