First, to clarify the post's title, I have no connection with Gareth Cliff or pay-TV M-Net. I'm not an M-Net subscriber. I don't follow Idols SA or Cliff's shows or tweets.
However, I'm interested in M-Net's recent firing of the former Idols judge for his tweet, the details of which are well-known, and his subsequent legal action suing M-Net for R25 million for breach of contract and defamation.
Just as Standard Bank was cowardly and hypocritical for suspending economist Chris Hart, M-Net was hypocritical for dismissing Cliff for, according to him, "lacking empathy", especially after other Idols judges, Unathi Msengana and Somizi Mhlongo, also caused outrage with their social media comments in 2015.
Msengana and Mhlongo are black, Cliff is white.
By comparison the Gauteng Department of Sport and Recreation only suspended employee Velaphi Khumalo, with pay after a few days for his tweet saying whites must be killed the same way Hitler killed the Jews. Khumalo largely escaped the media's extensive coverage of Cliff, Hart and the person who started it all, Penny Sparrow.
In its court filing M-Net hit back hard at Cliff, producing "market research" that claimed he was "poison", and that CEO Yolisa Phahle offered him a chance to "save face and voluntarily leave". Cliff refused.
Now, my tenuous connection to Gareth Cliff v M-Net:
Three years ago my then employer dismissed me alleging I was being downsized. The real reason though, was, as financial controller, I refused to keep silent about matters that were within my area of responsibility. I contested my dismissal - "retrenchment".
During legal proceedings they produced evidence, including an "independent" report, that claimed I was not effective in my post and superfluous and that I had broken relations with my employer. The claims were untrue.
Like M-Net's offer, my employer suggested I voluntarily resign after a few months. I refused and took it to court where an out-of-court settlement was reached.
M-Net fired Cliff but Phahle expected him to issue a joint statement pretending the split was mutual and everything was OK. Was she smoking a joint at the time?
Like M-Net, my former employer too was outraged, took it personally and "deeply offended" that I took them to court.
I don't care for Cliff one way or the other. But in cases like these I usually side with the wronged employee. I know companies use lies and hypocrisy to justify their actions.
The merits of Cliff's case will be decided by the court. But in a far more important way, Cliff and M-Net have done South Africa a favour by letting the courts determine where and how the boundaries of free speech and other constitutional rights intersect with "protecting the brand" and contractual and labour obligations.
I hope he succeeds though, because in South Africa dishonesty and hypocrisy, particularly concerning race within the media and business life, abounds.
However, I'm interested in M-Net's recent firing of the former Idols judge for his tweet, the details of which are well-known, and his subsequent legal action suing M-Net for R25 million for breach of contract and defamation.
Just as Standard Bank was cowardly and hypocritical for suspending economist Chris Hart, M-Net was hypocritical for dismissing Cliff for, according to him, "lacking empathy", especially after other Idols judges, Unathi Msengana and Somizi Mhlongo, also caused outrage with their social media comments in 2015.
Msengana and Mhlongo are black, Cliff is white.
By comparison the Gauteng Department of Sport and Recreation only suspended employee Velaphi Khumalo, with pay after a few days for his tweet saying whites must be killed the same way Hitler killed the Jews. Khumalo largely escaped the media's extensive coverage of Cliff, Hart and the person who started it all, Penny Sparrow.
In its court filing M-Net hit back hard at Cliff, producing "market research" that claimed he was "poison", and that CEO Yolisa Phahle offered him a chance to "save face and voluntarily leave". Cliff refused.
Now, my tenuous connection to Gareth Cliff v M-Net:
Three years ago my then employer dismissed me alleging I was being downsized. The real reason though, was, as financial controller, I refused to keep silent about matters that were within my area of responsibility. I contested my dismissal - "retrenchment".
During legal proceedings they produced evidence, including an "independent" report, that claimed I was not effective in my post and superfluous and that I had broken relations with my employer. The claims were untrue.
Like M-Net's offer, my employer suggested I voluntarily resign after a few months. I refused and took it to court where an out-of-court settlement was reached.
M-Net fired Cliff but Phahle expected him to issue a joint statement pretending the split was mutual and everything was OK. Was she smoking a joint at the time?
Like M-Net, my former employer too was outraged, took it personally and "deeply offended" that I took them to court.
I don't care for Cliff one way or the other. But in cases like these I usually side with the wronged employee. I know companies use lies and hypocrisy to justify their actions.
The merits of Cliff's case will be decided by the court. But in a far more important way, Cliff and M-Net have done South Africa a favour by letting the courts determine where and how the boundaries of free speech and other constitutional rights intersect with "protecting the brand" and contractual and labour obligations.
I hope he succeeds though, because in South Africa dishonesty and hypocrisy, particularly concerning race within the media and business life, abounds.
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