TimesLIVE reports that the Labour Court on Tuesday set aside the Passenger Rail Agency of SA’s (Prasa's) termination of the employment contracts of two senior executives and a manager, who must be reinstated with immediate effect.

Martha Ngoye, group executive for legal risk and compliance, and Nkosinathi Khena, Prasa’s COO, received letters terminating their employment on 29 January. The letters were followed by a statement from Prasa on 30 January saying their employment contracts were terminated for having been in the employ of Prasa for more than five years. According to the statement, the executives were employed for a period not exceeding five years, with no expectation of extension of the contracts. Tiro Holele received a letter terminating his employment as general manager of strategy on 1 February, also on the basis that his stay at Prasa had exceeded the normal fixed five-year contract extended to all executives. After receipt of the letters of termination, the three wrote to Prasa to claim that they had not signed five-year fixed-term contracts. In a judgment passed on Tuesday, the court noted that despite their contestations and reminders to Prasa that at no point had they they entered into five-year fixed-term contracts, the three never received any response from Prasa. The court said it was not denied the contracts of employment did not have expiry dates, but it noted that Prasa had elected not to produce documentation to support the decision to terminate the contracts. The Prasa board said it would lodge an appeal as it believed the basis for the judgment in favour of the three was flawed in law.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Ernest Mabuza at TimesLIVE

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