Vuyo Mvoko SABC case to proceed in court
Veteran SABC news anchor and contributing editor Vuyo Mvoko's case looks set to proceed in the Johannesburg High Court after a meeting with the judge.
|||Johannesburg - Veteran SABC news anchor and contributing editor Vuyo Mvoko’s case look set to proceed in the Johannesburg High Court after the parties failed to reach a settlement on Thursday morning.
Earlier on Thursday Mvoko consulted with his lawyers following their meeting with the judge and SABC counsel. It was unclear what was said in chambers but it appears as though no settlement was reached as the case is set to proceed at 10.45am.
Mvoko has applied to the court for the enforcement of his contract after the SABC said he would no longer be used to produce programmes until their dispute was settled.
He was not mentioned in the SABC statement on Wednesday reinstating seven axed journalists.
Mvoko was not a full-time SABC employee and worked on contract as a contributing editor.
His was the eighth head to roll in the wake of internal resistance to the decision to censor violent protest footage and criticism of the SABC.
Mvoko’s lawyers say he did not bring the public broadcaster into disrepute by criticising its ban on footage of violent protests, but was in fact protecting it.
Referring to an article penned by Mvoko and published by Independent Media in which he described the dire conditions in which journalists worked at the SABC under chief operations officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng and other bosses, 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”.
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.
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 he be scheduled would amount to it telling the public broadcaster which programmes to use and who should present them.
The article was “clearly adverse comment” about the SABC and the SABC said it had a right to protect its reputation, regardless of whether any of its decisions had been right or wrong.
IOL and Political Bureau