Prasa court case postponed

Former Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa board chairperson Popo Molefe

Former Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa board chairperson Popo Molefe

Published Mar 16, 2017

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Pretoria – The urgent application by now former Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) board chairperson Popo Molefe and other former board members was on Thursday rolled over to Friday to give the parties time to file further court papers.

Advocate David Unterhalter SC, acting for Molefe, told Gauteng High Court, Pretoria Judge Peter Mabuse, that Transport Minister Dipuo Peters only completed her affidavit by late Wednesday night. She could not sign it as she is out of town, although an unofficial copy was handed to the parties.

The minister will on Thursday hand over an official copy to the legal teams, after which Molefe’s team wanted to file their response to her opposition.

Unterhalter said they also want to file papers in opposition to an application by former acting group CEO, Collins Letsoalo, who wants to intervene as a respondent to the urgent application.

His lawyer, N Mashabela of the State Attorney’s office in Pretoria, this week informed Molefe’s team that Letsoalo felt that serious allegations are made against him in papers filed regarding this application.

“Our client has identified serious allegations which seek to tarnish his name and reputation in the founding affidavit, which in our client’s view are false and malicious,.”

“When launching the urgent application, your client ought to have know that in light of the serious and scandalous allegations made against our client, it goes without saying that he has a direct and substantial interest in the matter,” the letter read.

The lawyer said Lestoalo should have been joined as a respondent to that he could have the opportunity to answer for himself. It is said that the failure to join him, could prejudice him.

The Molefe camp will vigorously oppose this as their stance is that they are not asking for any order against him, so he thus does not have an interest in the application.

Peters dissolved the board on March 8 after it removed Letsoalo from his position earlier this month following reports that he had increased his salary by at least 350 percent to R5.9 million .Molefe, in his court papers, said there was no legal justification for the removal of the board.

Peters, however, this week appointed a new board in spite of today’s pending urgent application.

Pretoria News

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