Renthia Kaimbi
Four former interim board members of the National Youth Council (NYC) have taken minister of education, innovation, youth, sport, arts and culture Sanet Steenkamp to court, claiming she breached a settlement agreement by appointing a new interim board.
The urgent application was filed last month and seeks to overturn the minister’s decision.
The applicants, Hendrik Pandulomwene Theofilus, Vistoria Iita, Curtis Andrew and Serron Nghoshi, filed the case against 19 respondents, including the ministers of education and finance, the NYC and several former and current board members.
They were appointed as interim board members by former minister of Sport, Youth and National Service Agnes Tjongarero after she dissolved the NYC board in December last year.
A notice of motion filed by Murorua Kurtz Kasper Incorporated on 24 November shows the applicants want the court to review and set aside Steenkamp’s decision to appoint new board members on 2 October 2025.
They also want a settlement agreement they say was reached between the dissolved board and the minister (Steenkamp) in June and July 2025 to be made a binding court order.
They further ask the court to declare all actions taken by the new interim board since 2 October 2025 null and void.
The dispute centres on a claim that Steenkamp violated the settlement agreement by appointing a new interim board.
According to the applicants, the minister had agreed that they (the previous interim board) would stay in place until a General Assembly elected a new board.
To avoid a lengthy court fight earlier this year, the board that was dissolved by Tjongarero and the ministry agreed to a settlement with specific timelines.
Steenkamp agreed to retract the removal of the ousted board in writing within ten days of the agreement becoming a court order.
The settlement also required the minister to resolve the issues that led to the board’s removal within 60 days, followed by a general assembly within six months.
It stated that the existing interim board, including the four applicants, would stay in place until a new board was elected under the NYC act.
A condition of the agreement was that Tjongarero’s directive stopping the December 2024 General Assembly would stand.
The settlement included a strict confidentiality clause, stating that its terms “shall remain strictly confidential and shall not be disclosed to any third party (and specifically the media).”
Despite this clause, the agreement is now public after being attached to the urgent application filed on 24 November.
In the new case, the applicants want the court to enforce the settlement, declare it binding and valid, and set aside the minister’s October appointments. If they succeed, Steenkamp’s newly appointed board would be invalidated, and the four applicants could be reinstated until a general assembly elects a new board.
Respondents were given 15 days to state whether they intend to oppose the matter.
At the time of publication, further court documents were not yet available under the case number.
