Despite an arbitration ruling ordering that he get his job back, the board of the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) has decided against reinstating its former CEO Zolani Matthews.

TimesLIVE reports that the Prasa board, led by Leonard Ramatlakane, met on Tuesday and decided to take the arbitrator’s ruling to the Labour Court on review.

The arbitrator, retired Judge Robert Nugent, ruled recently that the ailing agency should reinstate Matthews with back pay.

This was after the agency dismissed him in December, ostensibly for having dual citizenship.

Prasa has also applied for a stay of the arbitration award, TimesLIVE notes.

The Sunday Times reported in November that Matthews had been suspended for not declaring that he holds dual citizenship, which Prasa viewed as a security threat.

At the time, Ramatlakane announced that there was an ‘alleged sensitive matter of security breach and other contractual obligations’.

Matthews is the son of the late struggle stalwart Joe Matthews, who lived in exile in England, which is when the dual citizenship was obtained.

He is also the younger brother of International Relations & Co-operation Minister Naledi Pandor.

In February, the Sunday Times reported that Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula warned Matthews months before he was fired that the Prasa board planned to remove him.

Full TimesLIVE report