Johannesburg - SABC stalwart and contributing editor Vuyo Mvoko did not bring the public broadcaster into disrepute by criticising its decision to ban footage of violent protests, but was in fact protecting it, his lawyers argue.
Referring to an article penned by Mvoko and published by Independent Newspapers in which he described the dire conditions in which journalists worked at the SABC under chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng, his lawyers say he did not so much bring it into disrepute as “regretting the disrepute into which conduct of certain individuals had already brought the institution”.
Read: 'My SABC hell' journalist turns the tables
He had criticised Motsoeneng, former group chief executive Jimi Matthews and former news head Snuki Zikalala “for their perversion of the SABC’s mission.
“The SABC’s mission is to inform, not censor,” Mvoko’s lawyers say in their heads of argument.
Mvoko has applied in the Johannesburg High Court for the enforcement of his contract as contributing editor after the SABC said he would no longer be used to produce programmes until their dispute was settled.
He was accused of breaching his contract by bringing the SABC into disrepute, but his lawyers argue that, as a journalist, he has a constitutional right to freedom of expression which a contract cannot override.
In his responding affidavit, SABC general manager, news special events, Simon Tebele, argues that in terms of the contract Mvoko would be used “as and when it is required” and for the court to order that he be scheduled would amount to it telling the public broadcaster which programmes to use and who should present them.
Political Bureau