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Johannesburg – Judgment in the case of the four axed SABC employees will now be handed down in the Labour Court in Johannesburg today, as opposed to Cape Town, trade union Solidarity said.

“It will be handed down at 10:00 at the Labour Court here in Johannesburg,” Solidarity chief executive Dirk Hermann told News24 yesterday.

He said the judgment will be handed down by a colleague of Judge Robert Lagrange.

Lagrange previously said in proceedings on Friday that he would provisionally hand down judgment on Monday, or in Cape Town on Tuesday.

Yesterday morning, the union was told the judgment would be handed down in Cape Town today. This has now, however, been changed.

The four journalists are Foeta Krige, Suna Venter, Krivani Pillay and Jacques Steenkamp. They are asking the court to set aside their dismissals and that their disciplinary processes be revoked in its entirety.

The other reporters who were notified of their dismissals last week were Thandeka Gqubule, Busisiwe Ntuli and Lukhanyo Calata.

They had criticised the broadcaster’s policy to not broadcast footage of violent protests.

Reporter Vuyo Mvoko filed papers in the High Court in Johannesburg on Friday, asking for an order that the SABC’s decision not to “schedule” him constitutes a breach of his freelance contract.

All eight have applied for direct access to the Constitutional Court.

The Helen Suzman Foundation and the broadcaster reached an agreement on Wednesday which saw the High Court in Pretoria interdicting the broadcaster from enacting its policy.

The Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) ruled on July 11 that the SABC had to withdraw its resolution, announced in May, to ban showing footage of violent protests.

Chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng initially said after the ruling that no one could tell the SABC what to do and that they would challenge Icasa’s decision in court.

However, in a surprise turn Icasa said on Wednesday afternoon that the SABC agreed to comply with the ruling. – News24