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Gama threatens to take Transnet board to court

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Siyabonga Gama
Siyabonga Gama

Beleaguered Transnet chief executive officer Siyabonga Gama has threatened to go to court urgently if the state freight-rail company does not withdraw its letter purporting to fire him.

In his responding letter to the company, seen by City Press, Gama told the board that he would ask the court to order that each of the Transnet board members personally pay for legal costs for prolonging the matter.

Gama was responding to Transnet’s letter sent to him last month in which he was asked to give reasons he should not be fired.

He was given until next Thursday to respond.

But in what appears to be a lecture of processes, which he suggests the board should have followed, Gama intends to use the board’s indecisiveness in his defence and argue that it cannot flip-flop on an already decided course of action when dealing with his case.

This was after the board had already informed him that it intended to suspend him on August 15 after he was implicated in maladministration relating to the 1 064 locomotives contract.

However, more than a month later, Transnet has changed its tune and said it intended to fire Gama and requested him to give reasons within 10 days why he should not be
axed.

READ:Transnet boss faces the axe over Gupta locomotive tender 

In the letter from his attorneys Maluleke Seriti Makume Matlala Inc, Gama argues that the termination letter constitutes a repudiation of the earlier letter of suspension.

Our client rejects the termination letter as he is in law entitled to do and holds the board and/or the chairperson to the letter of suspension which has been responded to by our client
Former Transnet chief executive, Siyabonga Gama's attorneys

“Our client relies on the legal principle of elections which is still part of the South African law at the time of the writing,” reads the letter.

It states that the “board’s legal advisers and some board members, who are legal practitioners, are aware of this legal principle of election”.

“Our instruction is to demand as we hereby do that the board withdraw the letter of termination within 48 hours … failing which our client will approach a court of law on an urgent basis and ask for cost on an attorney and client scale from each board member personally as the fiscus cannot be mulcted with costs relating to a matter where the legal position is trite.

“Our client rejects the termination letter as he is in law entitled to do and holds the board and /or the chairperson to the letter of suspension which has been responded to by our client.”

The letter concludes: “Once again we refer you to clause 19 of our client’s contract of employment which states that a dispute arising from the employment relationship between the parties should be referred to arbitration.”

However, Gama’s letter has been met with hostility from the board members who accuse him of making “empty” threats.

READ: Transnet wants former bosses to pay back the money

“If he does not make representations we will have to meet and decide his future at Transnet without any submissions from himself. We have received legal advice on the matter and we will not be acceding to his demand,” said a board member who requested that his name be withheld from publication.

Gama, while responding to the letter of suspension last month, quetioned the board’s bona fides in asking to provide reasons he should not be suspended.

“It is unfortunate that our client is asked to provide reasons he should not be suspended when it is apparent from your [Popo Molefe, chairperson of the Transnet board] accusations in the media statements and interviews that you have been conducting since August 15, that you have already made up your mind to suspend him before he can even submit his reasons he should not be put on precautionary suspension,” the letter read.

He argued that he was not involved in the negotiations and adjudication of the 1 064 locomotives and as such could have not prevented an award or non-award of the tender.

Gama and two Transnet executives are accused of wrongdoing by awarding the multibillion-rand locomotive tender which was found to have been inflated.

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