Siyabonga Gama, ex-Transnet chief, sent packing by Labour Court

FORMER Transnet chief executive Siyabonga Gama’s court application to stay in his job was labelled as “wholly misguided and meritless” in a judgment handed down by the Johannesburg Labour Court yesterday.

The court was dealing with an application to determine whether an earlier ruling, which referred Gama’s matter to arbitration, meant that the state-owned enterprise should not have fired him.

Transnet chairperson Popo Molefe last month asked Gama to state why he should not be fired. Instead of responding, he sought an urgent interdict against the board.

On October 19, the court ordered that the matter should go for arbitration. But Gama was fired.

Gama then filed the application to hold the Transnet board in contempt of court for terminating his contract and for an order that, pending arbitration, he could stay on as chief executive.

But Judge Connie Prinsloo said the parastatal would suffer prejudice if Gama was granted the orders he sought.

She said there had been a breakdown of trust and confidence.

“The group chief executive is the brain and nerve centre of the company and if there is a loss of confidence in the executive’s ability and integrity, resulting in his removal from the position, a court or arbitrator would not intervene to reinstate,” said the judge.

Judge Prinsloo said Gama should pay Transnet’s legal costs for defending “a meritless urgent application”.