Contract promising Mpumalanga ex-acting DG permanent post backfires in court

A controversial contract signed during the tenure of former Mpumalanga premier Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane, which appeared to guarantee a senior government official a permanent job beyond his fixed term, has unravelled in court, with the Mbombela High Court commenting strongly that the agreement expired with time and raising serious doubts about its legality.

The ruling, handed down this week, deals a heavy blow to former acting director-general Peter Nyoni, who had rushed to court seeking to force his reinstatement as a permanent employee in the Mpumalanga provincial government.

Lack of urgency

In a sharply worded judgment, Deputy Judge President Takalani Vincent Ratshibvumo struck the application off the roll for lack of urgency, but not before dismantling the foundation of Nyoni’s claim.

“This application has to be struck from the roll for lack of urgency,” Ratshibvumo ruled, finding that Nyoni could still pursue his case in the normal course.

Contentious clause

At the centre of the dispute is a clause embedded in a 2023 contract, concluded under Mtshweni-Tsipane’s administration, which Nyoni argued entitled him to automatically become a permanent employee once his three-year term ended in February 2026. Mtshweni-Tsipane is currently chairperson of the National Council of Provinces.

The clause, however, has now come under judicial scrutiny. “On the face of it, Clause 5.5 appears to be an employment contract within an employment contract, meant to bind other persons, long after the role players shall have left the office,” Ratshibvumo said.

“If this were allowed, it could easily result in officers occupying employers’ offices and signing employment contracts that bind their successors, rendering new employment contracts unnecessary.”

Termination vs expiry

Nyoni’s urgent bid was triggered by a March 4 letter from the provincial director-general confirming that his contract had ended. He argued the letter amounted to a termination and sought to have it suspended.

But the court rejected that argument, drawing a clear distinction between termination and expiry.

“The letter from the first respondent dated 04 March 2026 cannot be construed as a letter of termination of employment. At the time it was written, the contract had already lapsed by some four days,” Ratshivumo said.

The judgement further finds that Nyoni should have anticipated the outcome months earlier.

“At the very least, when no offer was made, some four months before the end of the fixed contract, he should have realised that the contract would expire without that offer,” the judge said.

Contract ‘potentially unlawful’

Crucially, the court’s reasoning aligns with steps taken by the current administration. It emerged in court that the second respondent, premier Mandla Ndlovu, had sought two separate legal opinions from the Public Service Commission and the Department of Public Service and Administration before taking a position on the contract.

Both opinions cautioned against implementing the clauses and concluded that the contract was irregular and potentially unlawful. Ndlovu was further advised to consider recovering funds paid under the arrangement, which had treated Nyoni as though he had been transferred as head of department when, in fact, he had been appointed as a deputy director-general after the expiry of his earlier contract.

The contract at the heart of the dispute was signed during Mtshweni-Tsipane’s tenure, a period when current premier Ndlovu served as an MEC despite already holding the powerful position of ANC provincial chairperson.

Political shadow

Beyond the courtroom, Nyoni’s story carries a longer political shadow. A long-time ANC figure in Mpumalanga, Nyoni previously served as head of the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs and was once part of the provincial executive committee. His career, however, has not been without turbulence.

He was linked to the “Save ANC” campaign, a faction that challenged the leadership of former provincial chairperson David Mabuza at the height of internal party battles. The campaign positioned itself as a corrective force against centralised power, but it ultimately lost ground as Mabuza consolidated control and rose to national prominence.

Nyoni’s later return to senior government roles, including within the Office of the Premier, placed him back inside the very system he once confronted, a full-circle arc that now finds him again at odds with the state, this time in court.

‘Nyoni aught to have known’

In response to the ruling, the Mpumalanga provincial government moved swiftly to assert its position. Provincial government spokesperson George Mthethwa said the court had confirmed what the state had argued from the outset.

“The application did not meet the legal threshold for urgency and was therefore improperly brought on an urgent basis,” Mthethwa said in a statement issued on Tuesday night.

He added that the court found Nyoni “ought to have been aware well in advance that his fixed-term contract would expire on 28 February 2026” and that the March 4 letter “did not terminate the contract but merely confirmed its expiry”.

Mthethwa further underscored the collapse of Nyoni’s central argument, noting that “there was no automatic right to permanent employment arising from the contract, as key conditions for such an outcome were not met”.

The Office of the Premier said it “warmly welcomes the judgement”. While Nyoni may still pursue the substantive challenge to the contract in the second part of his application, the high court has already drawn a hard line from questions it raised about the arrangement from the previous administration.

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