The Pretoria High court on Tuesday dismissed former Transnet director Seth Radebe's challenge to have his removal by Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan set aside.
Gordhan said in a statement he welcomed the ruling, adding that Rabebe's approach to the court had been "vexacious".
Judge Hans Fabricius said he noted that there had been a lack of decisive action by the Transnet board against employees implicated in corruption, particularly the freight rail company's tender for 1,064 new locomotives, in the face of sufficient evidence to do so.
The tender was mired in allegations that the Gupta family's Tegeta Exploration received a sizeable kickback and became the subject of a report by Werksmans attorneys.
Gordhan, who in May appointed a new Transnet board headed by Popo Molefe, was at odds with the old board because it did not suspend Transnet CEO Siyabonga Gama over the allegations.
Gordhan fired Radebe in April after the board failed to at against Gama and Transnet Chief Financial Officer Garry Pita.
In his court application Radebe argued, that Gordhan’s decision to remove him was a racist act.
Fabricius disagreed, saying: “I cannot find that the minister’s decision [to remove Radebe] was racially motivated or that it could even be regarded as racial discrimination, seen either subjectively or objectively. In my view, the minister took the relevant facts into account and made a rational decision based thereon. He kept in mind the parlous position of the South African economy, and the role Transnet had to play therein."
The judge said Gorhan's reasons for replacing the Transnet board had been thoroughly explained and there was no reason to impugn his character "as has been unfortunately done in these proceedings, by calling into question his academic qualifications, competence and understanding of his constitutional duties".
He accepted Gordhan's argument that the board had been found lacking.
“It took no decision to set aside the irregular contracts, or at the very least, to halt further payments being made to four entities still in the process of executing their contracts for the procurement of the 1,064 locomotives. There was also a complete failure to act swiftly and decisively against errant employees.”