Senior political anchor at the SABC Vuyo Mvoko should not be punished, even for a day, for doing his constitutional duty, the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) heard yesterday. Legalbrief notes the court is expected to rule today on whether he will be immediately reinstated or told to await the outcome of an SABC investigation of misconduct against him. A BDlive report points out Mvoko is the last of the eight journalists who lost their jobs at the public broadcaster for criticising it for its ban on the broadcast of footage of violent protests. The other seven, who were employees, were reinstated after court action. But Mvoko, who was hired in terms of an independent contractor agreement, is still out in the cold. His counsel, Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, said that the SABC suspension of his contract was clearly ‘retaliatory action’ for an article – My Hell at SABC – written by Mvoko and published in The Star newspaper. The SABC had suspended his contract when all Mvoko had done was to exercise his constitutional right to expression and the SABC had not disputed the truth of any of the facts alleged. ‘It can hardly be claimed that the SABC has been harmed by the telling of the truth,’ said Ngcukaitobi. If courageous journalists were kept out of the newsroom, it would affect the kind of news to which the public had access.

However, Ngcukaitobi faced tough questions from the Bench on whether Mvoko’s case was premature and urgent. Judge Fritz van Oosten said the contract between Mvoko and the SABC allowed the SABC to refuse to schedule him while it was investigating a case of misconduct against him. Mvoko had not been dismissed, the matter was under investigation, said the judge. ‘How can I interfere in a matter that is still pending in an investigation by the SABC,’ he asked , according to the BDlive report. Counsel for the SABC, Stephan du Toit SC, added that many of the arguments being made before the court were new; they had not been made in the court papers. In his affidavit, Mvoko’s ‘concern was not for the public, it was for his pocket’, he said. And Van Oosten said the arguments made at court were also not made to the SABC when Mvoko responded to the suspension letter. Instead, he had rushed to the urgent court, ‘which I find totally unacceptable’, said the judge. Van Oosten said he would give his order this morning.

Full BDlive report