Judgment in SABC four case expected on Tuesday

25 July 2016

Johannesburg - Judgment in the case of the four SABC employees who were fired will be handed down in Cape Town on Tuesday, trade union Solidarity said on Monday.

"We will now liaise to get a venue [in Gauteng] so that we can gather at 09:45 tomorrow for a livestream of the judgment, and then together with all the applicants have a briefing," Solidarity chief executive Dirk Hermann said.

"We are doing it from here because it is very difficult to move the whole operation [to Cape Town]."

Judge Robert Lagrange previously said in proceedings in the Labour Court on Johannesburg on Friday that he would provisionally hand down judgment on Monday, or in Cape Town on Tuesday.

The four journalists are Foeta Krige, Suna Venter, Krivani Pillay and Jacques Steenkamp. They were asking the court to set aside their dismissals, and that their disciplinary processes be revoked in its entirety.

The other reporters who were notified of their dismissals last week were Thandeka Gqubule, Busisiwe Ntuli and Lukhanyo Calata.

They had criticised the broadcaster's policy to not broadcast footage of violent protests.

Reporter Vuyo Mvoku filed papers in the High Court in Johannesburg on Friday, asking for an order that the SABC's decision not to "schedule" him constitutes a breach of contract.

All eight have applied for direct access to the Constitutional Court.

The Helen Suzman Foundation and the broadcaster reached an agreement on Wednesday which saw the High Court in Pretoria interdicting the broadcaster from enacting its policy.

The Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) ruled on July 11 that the SABC had to withdraw its resolution, announced in May, to ban showing footage of violent protests.

SABC COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng initially said after the ruling that no one could tell the SABC what to do and that they would challenge Icasa’s decision in court. However, in a surprise turn Icasa said on Wednesday afternoon that the SABC agreed to comply with the ruling.

This article first appeared on News24, see here.