Johannesburg – The urgent court application by media personality Gareth Cliff against M-Net should be dismissed with costs, the South Gauteng High Court heard on Tuesday.
Advocate Wim Trengrove, for M-Net, argued that M-Net had a right to decide who becomes an Idols SA judge.
“The harm to his reputation which he complains he suffered was caused by him. He is the author of that tweet, not M-Net…he destroyed his own reputation,” Trengrove argued.
“We therefore submit, my lady, that the urgent application be dismissed with costs.”
Trengrove added that M-Net was forced to choose between cancelling the 2016 Idols auditions or having Cliff as Idols judge “in the midst of the political furore”.
Cliff did not have a contract that entitled him to be an Idols judge, and M-Net had a right to cancel a contract if it existed, he further argued.
Judge Caroline Nicholls asked Trengrove what would happen if Cliff was reinstated on an interim basis.
“He has not demonstrated a contractual right, my lady, all he had was just a week as a judge…M-Net was entitled to cancel the contract within a week.”
He referred to email communication read earlier by Cliff’s legal representative Advocate Dali Mpofu.
“A contract is an agreement. The question is did the parties agree on anything? No. One of the emails explains that a contract was being prepared. The fact that you were preparing a contract, doesn’t mean there was an agreement,” Trengrove said.
Cliff was fired from Idols SA after tweeting about freedom of speech following former estate agent Penny Sparrow’s tweet calling black beachgoers in Durban monkeys.
He wants the court to halt the 2016 Idols SA auditions, scheduled to get underway at the end of the month, until he is reinstated or compensated R25 million for defamation and unlawful dismissal.
The case continues.
African News Agency
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