Johannesburg - The SABC continued to face mounting pressure from civil society and the South African Communist Party to reinstate the seven journalists who have been fired.
This comes after another opposition party, the DA, marched on Parliament on Tuesday calling on the ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu to urgently convene the special meeting of the portfolio committee on communications to address the crisis at the SABC.
But ANC caucus spokesman Moloto Mothapo described the DA march as a political stunt sought to deflect attention facing the SABC.
Read: Parliament is ignoring the SABC crisis: CASAC
He said the portfolio committee will hold its meeting after the August polls.
The Right2Know Campaign and the Save Our SABC Coalition condemned the sacking of the seven journalists describing it as a show trial.
Read: Unions set to do battle with SABC
The civil society bodies demanded the reinstatement of the seven journalists. Vuyo Mvoko, who is the contributing editor at the SABC, had not been served with a letter of dismissal at the time of going to print.
The SACP was on Wednesday going to march on the SABC Cape Town offices to protest at the ongoing clampdown on journalists and censorship policies.
Mothapo said they would not be pushed into submission by the DA to hastily convene the meeting of the committee.
He said the programme of Parliament was agreed to with all parties, and it cannot be changed at the whim of one party.
“Ours is not an authoritarian parliamentary system where the governing party dictates the agenda and unilaterally imposes it on other parties,” he said.
Mothapo said the office of the chief whip takes the issue of the SABC seriously and Parliament will handle it after the polls.
R2K and SOS Coalition described the situation at the SABC as purging.
They said the axing of the seven journalists, including Thandeka Gqubule, Suna Venter, Foeta Krige, Lukhanyo Calata, Krivani Pillay, Busisiwe Ntuli and Jacques Steenkamp, as a show trial.
They demanded the firing of SABC strongman Hlaudi Motsoeneng.
In a show of solidarity SABC2 news anchor Ivor Price resigned from the public broadcaster citing a hostile environment for journalists.
SACP spokesman Alex Mashilo said there was no justification in the firing of the journalists.
“No working class party worthy of the character can be silent at this suffering imposed on workers and at the looting of the public broadcaster away from the public,” said Mashilo.
Trade unions Solidarity and Broadcasting, Electronic, Media and Allied Workers Union (Bemawu) are on Thursday expected to lodge an urgent application at the Labour Court for the reinstatement of the fired journalists.
Political Bureau