Johannesburg - Black First Land First (BLF) said on Thursday that an application by the SA National Editors' Forum (Sanef) for an interdict against them was brought as a result of journalists not trusting the South African Police Services (SAPS) to do its job.
"Journalists running to court is abuse of the law, they clearly saying they will go to court because they don't trust the South African Police Services (SAPS)," Brandon Shabangu for BLF said during proceedings at the South Gauteng High Court.
Sanef launched the urgent application to interdict BLF from harassing, intimidating, assaulting and threatening journalists, especially those reporting on state capture.
Shabangu said there was no resolution to empower Sanef chairperson, Mahlatse Gallens, to bring the matter before the court as co-applicants, which include several journalists, were not members of the organisation.
"It's either she has authority of the first applicant or the second to 12th applicant, she can only represent people who are members. There's nothing that says they are members. The application has failed," he said.
Shabangu told the court the application was not urgent as there had only been one protest and no other violent acts following that.
He added that he failed to see what threat there was in people saying they would protest against white journalists who they felt were biased.
Earlier, Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, for Sanef, read an affidavit from political analyst Karima Brown. The affidavit spells out the events which lead to the application for the court interdict against BLF.
Through Ngcukaitobi, Brown said she was notified that there was a protest outside the private house of Tiso Blackstar editor, Peter Bruce, last Thursday.
She said a protester pressed a placard in her face while she was trying to get to her vehicle. She was later threatened and sworn at in front of police, who merely told her that she was provoking the protesters.
"A protester said she would show me what they would do to me," Brown said in her affidavit.
The protesters allegedly said they were outside Bruce's house because he wrote about the Guptas.