By PERPETUAL SICHIKWENKWE –

THREE former Road Traffic and Safety Agency (RTSA) directors who were sacked in national interest last year, have filed in the Lusaka High Court seeking to reverse the action against them.
Martin Mbangu, former deputy director of Safety, Frank Munthali, head of internal audit and risk management and Cytone Kibela, former head, Information and Communication Technology, were retired by the Ministry of Works, Transport and Communication in May 2013.
They are challenging the decision of the ministry to retire them in national interest stating that the action was unreasonable, irrational and was made without justifiable grounds.
They said the decision was illegal and ultra-vires as there was no provision either in the Road Traffic Act number 11 of 2002, in their contracts of employment and conditions of service providing for their terminations of employment.
Mr Mbangu, Mr Munthali and Mr Kibela said the decision by the minister to retire them was illegal as it undermined the freedom of contract of employment between the appointing authority RTSA, and them which contract could only be terminated by the parties to the contract and not the minister.
They wanted the court to declare the decision by Government as null and void because the minister had no authority to terminate their contracts of service.
Mr Mbangu said in an affidavit verifying facts relied on an application for leave to apply for judicial review that the three were employed by RTSA on various dates. They said that their contracts which were supposed to run for a period of three years but were retired in national interest on about May 21, 2013. Mr Mbangu said that to date no reasons have been availed over their retirements.