Legal Articles and Guides

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. 

After weeks of acrimony, protest actions, court cases and even a clash between the SABC hierarchy and the ANC, the curtain came down on the first act of the SABC censorship saga this week with the broadcaster’s management – at one point brash and defiant – apparently in disarray and facing costs orders, notes Daily News. The seven journalists who bore the brunt of the SABC’s animosity – they were suspended, fired, then turned away despite a Labour Court ruling before finally being reinstated when the broadcaster thought better about launching an appeal – are back at work. But the final act – a bid by the journalists to get Constitutional Court clarity on the role of the public broadcaster – has still to be played out.

The clash over Nkosana Makate’s payout from cellphone giant Vodacom has taken yet another nasty turn, says a Mail & Guardian Online report. This time, a senior advocate has landed up being the subject of a High Court application. Makate’s funders are questioning his experience as an arbitrator to preside over such a big money case. Michael Mabena SC was appointed by the chairperson of the Pretoria Bar Council to oversee a dispute between Makate and funders of his case against Vodacom.

Just when the political pressure on the SABC board and its boss Hlaudi Motsoeneng appeared to be intensifying this week, the valve was opened courtesy of the ANC, which deflected the issue – correctly, it must be said – to Parliament. Trouble is, notes Daily News, Parliament doesn't sit again until mid-August by which time the local government elections will be over and the SABC's censorship decisions will still be in place, providing ammunition for challenges to the elections outcome. And calls for the National Assembly's Communications Committee to reconvene to deal with the issue have so far fallen on deaf ears.

Despite the public clamour for the righting of the listing SABC ship, those at the helm – chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng backed by the board – remain defiant. They think nothing of spending taxpayer millions to appeal judgments that have gone against Motsoeneng; they have effectively told Icasa to take a 'jump' and they have even made it clear to the ANC that it should keep its nose out of SABC management affairs, notes Daily News. Motsoeneng seems to believe he is untouchable – and while ever he has the backing of Communications Minister Faith Muthambi, claimed by critics to be his channel to President Jacob Zuma, he probably is. It seems only the courts will be able to bring an end to his domination of the national broadcaster, and given the speed at which the wheels of justice move it's anybody's guess when that might be.

Activist group AfriForum has failed to force the Open Stellenbosch (OS) movement supporter Johannes Pienaar to remove social media posts suggesting the organisation’s supporters had threatened to rape women at an End Rape Culture protest this year, notes a Weekend Argus report. Acting Judge Michael Donen found on Friday the relief sought by AfriForum and its head of local government affairs, Marcus Christiaan Pawson, would have a detrimental effect on political free speech. AfriForum could meet political criticism by responding to the posts with rebuttals on social media, he said. The judgment stems from protest action in the vicinity of the JS Marais statue at Stellenbosch University on 3 March. On the one side was a march organised by the the EFF Student Command at the university, which supports the OS mov ement. On the other side, was AfriForum, there to celebrate the university’s heritage and clean up the campus, including scrubbing graffiti off the statue. 

Denials from the two main role-players and the SABC quickly followed a Sunday Times revelation that the broadcaster's boss, Hlaudi Motsoeneng, had pushed through a R167m contract with a production company co-owned by Zuma’s daughter Gugu Zuma-Ncube, going against the advice of a six-member review panel. The report says the three-year contract with Stained Glass Productions for drama series Uzalo has irked some staff, who believe the series has become ‘a political tool at the SABC’. The review panel decided not to renew Uzalo for a second season because of concerns that there was no proper business plan, the budget was ‘about 10 times that of a 13-part series’ and there had been problems during the show’s first season with ‘writing, aesthetics and delivery’. But Motsoeneng overruled them, and the deal was signed off within a week, claims the Sunday Times report, which adds the SABC was unfazed by the matter.

The SABC and its chief operating officer and editor-in-chief Hlaudi Motsoeneng continued to dominate the news pages this week – but it was also the week that the ANC significantly entered the fray, flip-flopping its previous position with a direct attack on the broadcaster's refusal to show pictures of violent protests against the state on its TV channels, notes Legalbrief. It was also hoped that there might be a ruling from Icasa yesterday (Thursday) ordering the SABC to reverse its new policy position, but this was not forthcoming, with the regulator claiming it was still discussing a complaint lodged by concerned NGO groups.

Communications Minister Faith Muthambi has defended her decision to permanently appoint Hlaudi Motsoeneng as the the SABC’s chief operating officer in a petition filed with the SCA yesterday (Thursday), says a report in The Citizen. Muthambi is seeking special leave from the SCA to appeal against a ruling by Judge Dennis Davis in the Western Cape High Court setting aside Motsoeneng’s appointment as irrational and unlawful. The judge in May dismissed an application for leave to appeal against his ruling. In 2015 he ruled that information before Muthambi at the time of Motsoeneng’s promotion had been muddled and unclear and put her in no position to exercise a rational decision to elevate him. The ruling followed an application by the DA based on Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s findings ag ainst Motsoeneng in a 2014 report, including that he had fabricated his matric qualifications and increased his salary irregularly from R1.5m to R2.4m a year.