Transport minister Fikile Mbalula warned Zolani Matthews months before he was fired as head of the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) that the board had hatched a plan to remove him just six months into the job.

In a series of text messages, Mbalula told Matthews that Prasa board chair Leonard Ramatlakane saw him as a threat to his “self-enrichment” scheme at the state-owned entity and was leading the charge to have him ousted...