The court has ordered the financially struggling SABC to pay R989 408 in damages to the fired former SABC commentator Pieter van den Berg after he was let go following false claims of racism levelled against him by SABC technical producer Musa Msomi.
The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria heard the case after Pieter van den Berg was fired by the SABC, following a clam from Musa Msomi that Van den Berg during a rugby match on 7 May 2016 at Kings Park between the Sharks and Hurricanes allegedly would have said "all blacks are incompetent".
The court found that there was no evidence to collaborate Musa Msomi's version of what transpired.
Pieter van den Berg said the SABC fired him without hearing his side of what actually happened, claiming R1 million in damages from the SABC with a year still left on his contract.
According to Pieter van den Berg, Diane Riemer, the SABC's general manager of production – radio sport, unilaterally revoked his contract without considering his side of the story.
Pieter van den Berg argued that Musa Msomi was late for his call-in time, was under the influence of alcohol, ignored the rules of the stadium, and that he asked Musa Msomi to do his work correctly, never uttering any racist remarks.
In August 2018 Navashni Chetty, media manager for the Sharks, testified in court about an incident after the match where Musa Msomi accused a security guard of being racist for refusing to let him into the media centre with a glass in his hand, while allowing a white man to enter with a glass bottle in his hand.
Navashni Chetty told the court that Musa Msomi was aggressive and smelled of alcohol and refused to accept that the security guard was not racist.
The SABC meanwhile argued in court papers that Pieter van den Berg made a racist, offensive and hateful slot to Musa Msomi and said his remarks were humiliating, disparaging, belittling and had the potential to tarnish the name of the SABC and bringing the broadcaster into disrepute.
The trade union Solidarity represented Pieter van den Berg and described the court judgment as a huge victory, saying Pieter van den Berg was a "respected broadcaster of integrity who lost his job because a colleague made false accusations against him.
Pieter van den Berg's involvement in South African sport broadcasts goes back over three decades when he started to broadcast and present sports programmes.
Viewers also came to know him as the presenter of Teletien, TV4 Sport and Topsport on television, and for many years his voice has been heard on radio.
Since 2009 he was a regular rugby and sports commentator on RSG and his coverage also included the London Olympic Games. He has also been the daily sports reporter for the Afrikaans actuality programme, Monitor. At the time of the cancellation of his contract, Pieter van den Berg was RSG's sports organiser and executive producer at SABC Sport.
