Timeslive reports that former SA Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng’s application for leave to appeal against a decision that he must personally pay for the legal costs associated with a ban on coverage of protest action has been dismissed with costs.  

Trade union Solidarity said it received confirmation from the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) on Tuesday that Motsoeneng’s appeal had been dismissed.  But Motsoeneng said on Thursday:  “The only court is the Constitutional Court.  My lawyers are preparing an application to the Constitutional Court.  The SCA did not rule on the merits of the case.”  In his application to the SCA, Motsoeneng sought to appeal against a Labour Court decision that ordered him and the SABC’s former acting group executive for news and current affairs Simon Tebele to pay the legal costs of seven SABC journalists dismissed last year as a result of Motsoeneng’s controversial ban on the broadcasting of protest actions.  This ban resulted in eight journalists - the so-called SABC 8 - being unlawfully fired at the time.  Solidarity CEO Dirk Hermann commented:  “In view of this confirmation by the Supreme Court of Appeal‚ this court will not offer him any further recourse.  This is vindication that the SABC 8 had been fired unlawfully and that Motsoeneng’s actions were unlawful and wrongful.”

• Read this report by Ernest Mabuza in full at Timeslive
• Read Solidarity’s press statement in this regard at Solidarity News

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page