Court believes SABC is not putting its cards on the table regarding SABC 8 – Solidarity

18 October 2016

Trade union Solidarity announced on Tuesday that the Labour Court has issued a directive expressing its opinion with regard to the affidavits that the SABC had to submit in terms of a court order.

This follows after the Labour Court issued an order on 26 July 2016 that two SABC executives had five days to provide reasons as to why they should not be personally responsible for the legal costs incurred by Solidarity and the four SABC employees in their court case against the SABC.

“In the directive, the court states that the affidavits received from the SABC’s Sebolelo Ditlhakanyane and Simon Tebele on 2 August were vague and did not specifically mention who was responsible for the decision to dismiss the SABC 8,” said Anton van der Bijl, Head of Solidarity’s Centre for Fair Labour Practices.

According to Van der Bijl, this directive confirms Solidarity’s earlier viewpoint that the SABC did not put its cards on the table in court. “Consequently, Judge Lagrange of the Labour Court ordered the SABC on 14 October to submit an affidavit to the court before or on 25 October 2016 indicating the person/s responsible for the decision to dismiss the SABC 8,” Van der Bijl said.

“We still believe that it is highly unlikely that this decision was taken without the knowledge of the SABC Council and/or Executive Management. Lately, it has become increasingly clear that the SABC Council and its Executive Management is neither taking the interests of the public nor any rules or laws into consideration,” Van der Bijl said.

Issued by Anton van der Bijl, Head: Solidarity Centre for Fair Labour Practices, 18 October 2016