Cape Town - Newly appointed head of news at the SABC Simon Tebele has tried to exonerate himself for the decision to fire seven of its journalists.
In an explanatory affidavit filed in the Labour Court, Tebele says he was acting on legal advice and in accordance with SABC policy and its disciplinary code of conduct.
Tebele was instructed by the court to explain why he should not be held personally liable for the costs of four journalists when it set aside the termination of their employment last month.
The court found the decision had been authorised with “reckless disregard” for pending applications to itself and the Constitutional Court and “little regard of the relative costs and benefits to the SABC”.
Tebele says he signed the notices to the journalists because the broadcaster’s head of radio news, Sebolelo Ditlhakanyane, was not available when the deadline expired for the journalists to respond to warning notices of their dismissal.
Ditlhakanyane, who was also asked by the court to explain why she should not be held liable, tries in her own affidavit to distance herself from the decision to fire the journalists, saying she was acting on Tebele’s instructions at all times and had stated where she disagreed with decisions made.
The affidavits come as axed contributing editor Vuyo Mvoko’s application to have his contract with the SABC enforced is to be heard in the Joburg High Court on Thursday.
Mvoko, who would have been expected to play a key role in the broadcaster’s elections coverage, was informed he would no longer be scheduled after he penned an article, published by Independent Newspapers, describing high-level interference in editorial decisions.
The seven other journalists were ultimately fired after raising their objections with management over a ban on the broadcasting of footage of violent protests and a decision not to cover protests by civil society organisations against this policy.
Tebele says objections from SABC staff to the policy arose during a national diary conference on June 20 when he announced it would not cover the protests against the policy that day.
Economics editor Thandeka Gqubule was among those who objected, saying journalists had a duty to report the news without fear or favour.
Tebele says his view was that the SABC could not cover protests that would generate adverse publicity for itself.
However, when then acting group chief executive Jimi Matthews, who has since resigned, said he believed the journalists were refusing to comply with an instruction, Tebele says he advised Matthews that the diary meeting was a forum for robust discussion and the journalists were merely making their objections known.
“After a robust discussion with the AGCEO, it became clear that he had a different view,” Tebele says.
It was also the advice of the SABC’s head of legal services that merely recording disagreement was not in itself a violation, leading the broadcasters to begin an internal disciplinary process on “different charges”.
Political Bureau