Another SABC journalist charged

4 July 2016

Cape Town - SABC journalist Lukhanyo Calata has been charged by the public broadcaster.

News24 has learnt that Calata received the charges on Monday. The details of the charges were not made available.

Calata on Friday joined a protest march outside the SABC’s offices in Cape Town.

At the protest, Calata, who was joined by his young son, told News24 that he was there because "it was important for me to show solidarity with other journalists".

He said he was encouraged by the support shown by other media houses for journalists at the SABC.

Calata is a parliamentary reporter based in Cape Town.

His father, Fort, was a member of the "Cradock Four", anti-apartheid activists who were assassinated near Port Elizabeth in 1985.

SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago could not be reached for comment on Monday after multiple attempts.

Six others charged

On Thursday, the SABC charged three journalists for "liaising with the media" without authorisation from their bosses.

The three - Busisiwe Ntuli, Krivani Pillay and Jacques Steenkamp - wrote a letter to COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng last weekend, expressing their dissatisfaction with how operations had been managed at the SABC over the last few weeks.

This followed the suspension of three other employees -Thandeka Gqubule, Foeta Krige and Suna Venter.

The three were served with suspension letters two weeks ago for allegedly "distancing" themselves from an order. They disagreed with an instruction during a diary conference not to cover the Right2Know campaign's protest against censorship at the public broadcaster earlier that week.

Lukanyo Calata of the SABC, with his son, says: "It was important for me to show solidarity with other journalists." pic.twitter.com/K95r3cd5IO— Paul Herman (@PaulTHerman) July 1, 2016

This article first appeared on News24, see here.