The Johannesburg High Court is expected to hear arguments on Tuesday afternoon challenging the third suspension of South African Broadcasting Corporation chief executive Dali Mpofu.
Proceedings were delayed in the morning when SABC employees indicated they wanted to lodge an application to intervene in the matter, but they later withdraw their application.
Their lawyer, Michael Naidoo, told the court the reinstatement of SABC news chief Snuki Zikalala on Monday had prompted employees and unions to attempt to intervene in the matter.
”The employees decided it would be advisable to place their concerns before the court,” Naidoo said without elaborating.
Judge Antonie Gildenhuys briefly adjourned the court to give all parties time to read the affidavit submitted by SABC employees.
After reading the affidavit, Mpofu’s lawyer, Mike Cooper, told the court his client would amend his application to simplify the matter, a move that would make the SABC employees’ affidavit unnecessary.
Cooper said the court application would deal only with whether the board meetings at which Mpofu’s suspension was decided were unlawful or not.
Earlier, Mpofu’s lawyers had indicated they would also seek intervention from the court in an attempt to remove the board.
Naidoo then agreed to withdraw the application but said he might make a similar application at a later stage. He said the SABC employees wanted the Congress of South African Trade Unions to add its voice to their application.
The court then dealt with the amendment of the application as proposed by Mpofu’s lawyer.
However, the board’s lawyer, Paul Pretorius, said that if the application was amended, it would request a postponement until Friday.
When the court adjourned for lunch, a lawyer for Mpofu said he was now considering dropping the amendment again, in order to prevent another postponement.
The court is yet to rule on the latter matter.
Outside the court, a handful of people were singing songs to show their support for Mpofu while members of a Thembisa congregation attended the hearings to show their support.
Mpofu’s lawyers want the court to declare the meeting where his suspension was decided as irregular, because Mpofu and two other board members were not present.
This would make the meeting null and void.
Mpofu was first suspended on May 7, a day after he suspended Zikalala, who was accused of leaking a memorandum on Mpofu’s alleged bad management of the SABC.
The Johannesburg High Court overturned Mpofu’s suspension but a few days later he was suspended again. He then won another court bid challenging his suspension, but the board retaliated with a third suspension.
According to court papers, the board held that Mpofu did not have the authority to suspend Zikalala.
On Monday, it emerged that Zikalala had been reinstated as the SABC’s head of news.
The SABC reported that the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration had been asked to conduct an independent fact-finding mission into whether there were grounds to suspend Zikalala, who was on special leave and would return to work within two weeks.
Senior SABC managers have called on President Thabo Mbeki to remove the board while a judge has questioned its chairperson’s independence. – Sapa