That the Labour Court found that South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) chief operating officer “Hlaudi Motsoeneng acted unlawfully” when he purged four journalists “should see him suspended and fired once and for all”.

That was the reaction of the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) Phumzile van Damme after the court on Tuesday ordered that the quartet‚ axed last week for allegedly breaching the terms of their employment contracts‚ be reinstated.

Trade union Solidarity and the four – Foeta Krige‚ Suna Venter‚ Krivani Pillay and Jacques Steenkamp – had asked the court to set aside their dismissal notices in an urgent application last week.

The four had raised objections to the broadcaster’s decision to ban footage of violent protests on its news outlets.

Van Damme said the ruling was the “latest in a laundry list of scathing indictments by several courts including the Western Cape High Court more than once‚ the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) and now the Labour Court”.

She said this was “clear evidence that the president should accede to the DA’s urgent request that he establish a Judicial Commission of Inquiry …(to) probe Motsoeneng’s gross misconduct and his fitness to hold office before ultimately recommending that he be fired once and for all”.

Van Damme also reiterated the call for Parliament to “immediately convene an urgent sitting of the Communications Portfolio Committee”.

“Failure to do so by ANC Chief Whip Jackson Mthembu will make Parliament complicit in the erosion of the public broadcaster and make Parliament and accessory to this chilling of free speech‚” she said.

The committee indicated last week that it could deal with the issue of the axed SABC journalists at a meeting on August 23.

– TMG Digital