TimesLive reports that former SA Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) boss Hlaudi Motsoeneng has failed to escape personal liability for the legal costs associated with a 2016 ban on coverage of violent protests ahead of the 2016 local government elections.
The Constitutional Court finalised the matter on Monday by dismissing, with costs, Motsoeneng’s application for leave to appeal the costs order. The Labour Court had originally ordered Motsoeneng to personally pay the legal costs of trade unions Solidarity and Bemawu, which had represented the SABC 8 in their case opposing their unlawful dismissal as a result of having defied the ban. Motsoeneng has ever since unsuccessfully been attempting to appeal that costs ruling. Back in June, Anton van der Bijl‚ head of Solidarity’s labour law division‚ observed that Motsoeneng was simply postponing the inevitable. “He is playing a cat-and-mouse game with the courts‚ but he will back himself into a corner yet again‚” Van der Bijl said at the time. In a press statement on Tuesday, Solidarity’s CE Dr Dirk Hermann estimated that the parties’ total cost could amount to between R1.6 and R1.8 million.
- Read the full original of this report by Naledi Shange at TimesLive
- Read Solidarity’s press statement at Solidarity News
- Read too, Hlaudi Motsoeneng loses final bid to appeal costs order, at The Citizen
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page