The newspaper was found to have not complied with disciplinary processes
The Johannesburg Labour Court on Friday set aside the dismissal of the Citizen’s editor, Steve Motale, who was fired last year.
While Motale will be reinstated, the court did not order for his suspension to be lifted and he is still liable to face disciplinary charges.
Motale was suspended from his duties in November last year, pending the outcome of an internal disciplinary process, the Citizen’s publisher Eureka Zandberg said in a statement to staff at the time. He was accused of failing to follow agreed-upon editorial procedures and not upholding his editorial duties, which had led to an irretrievable breakdown in the relationship of trust and confidence between the editor and the publisher of the newspaper.
He was then dismissed from his position on November 28, according to court papers.
Subsequently, Motale approached the labour court, requesting that he be reinstated on the basis that his dismissal was a violation of “editorial independence” and did not conform to the disciplinary code of the Citizen.
In his judgment, Judge David Gush dismissed the first claim but did rule that the newspaper had not followed the correct disciplinary processes.
“It is declared that the decision of the respondent to terminate the applicant’s contract of employment is a breach of the employment contract read with the first respondent’s disciplinary code procedure,” read the judgment.
‘Vindicated‘
Motale said he felt “vindicated” by the court’s decision and was always confident of succeeding in his application. “I’ve been advised to go to work on Monday, but my lawyers and the Citizen’s lawyers are still engaging following this morning’s ruling in court,” he told News24 on Friday.
“I have always maintained I was innocent and this was a glaring interference with editorial by management. They wanted to dictate which stories I could run.”
In response to his comments, the Citizen’s lawyers released a statement declaring that Motale would not be able to immediately return to work,
“Whilst the court has found that Mr Motale is contractually entitled to a formal disciplinary hearing and has accordingly reinstated him, it has not ordered that his suspension be uplifted.
“The net result is that the editor will now face disciplinary charges in terms of the Citizen’s disciplinary code. The editor will remain suspended, pending the outcome of the misconduct case against him.” – additional reporting by wires