BREAKING. Newsreader Mahendra Raghunath back at SABC after broadcaster had to lift his suspension.

Mahendra Raghunath is back at the SABC after the broadcaster suspended the popular news anchor of SABC3's daily flagship news bulletin the News @ 7 in February for allegedly talking to the press about terrible working conditions and flagrant power abuses within the SABC's news division.

The SABC's head of TV news Amrit Manga suspended Mahendra Raghunath in February. In March Mahendra Raghunath took the SABC to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediatiation and Arbitration (CCMA). After the SABC did nothing and produced no evidence, the CCMA finally ordered the CCMA in mid-April to conclude its report within two weeks. The case would have appeared before the CCMA again on June 10 but now the SABC has lifted Mahendra Raghunath's suspension.

Mahendra Raghunath will start working at the SABC's news desk again on Monday, June 7. I asked the SABC earlier today, but there is no specific date yet on when Mahendra Raghunath will be back on air reading the news.

ALSO READ: SABC3 ''seriously concerned'' about flailing SABC3 news bulletin without Mahendra Raghunath.

BREAKING. Communication Workers Union (CWU) demands ''immediate re-instatement'' of SABC3 news anchor Mahendra Raghunath.

After I told you RIGHT HERE yesterday that SABC3 is ''seriously concerned''  about the TV channel's News @ 7 bulletin without Mahendra Raghunath, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) has now come out demanding ''the immediate re-instatement'' of Mahendra Raghunath ''after he was suspended for speaking the truth''.

Mahendra Raghunath was taken off the air by SABC's head of TV news, Amrit Manga, after he allegedly spoke to the media about the intolerable conditions inside the SABC's TV news division. I can tell you that whether Mahendra Raghunath spoke to a media institution or not, the SABC TV news division has a much bigger problem. A massive amount of people in that division have spoken to me numerous times about alleged abuses, victimisation and bad management within the division over a long period of time - and continue to. Furthermore, as a news division, Amrit Manga and the SABC should very know that media institutions make use and talk to a myriad of sources for many stories on a daily basis.

The CWU says ''the suspension of Mahendra Raghunath is a continuation of the Snukification of the SABC news division by both the acting head of news Phil Molefe and the SABC's head of TV news,  Amrit Manga. This is a clear demonstration that the two SABC news bosses are intolerant of dissent and abuse their positions of authority to silence and victimize workers. The failure by the SABC to heed our call for the immediate re-instatement of Mahendra Raghunath will reinforce our suspicion that the SABC News once more, is being bullied to pursue certain sectarian agenda similar to the ones pursued during the era of Snuki Zikalala.''

BREAKING. SABC3 ''seriously concerned'' about flailing News @ 7 without news anchor Mahendra Raghunath.

You're reading it here first.

SABC3 is ''seriously concerned'' about its nightly flagship news bulletin at 19:00, the News @ 7 that is limping along without its longtime news anchor Mahendra Raghunath and a flurry of inept nightly replacements. Mahendra Raghunath has been taken off the air and suspended by his SABC news bosses after he allegedly spoke to the media about the apparent shambles that the SABC TV News division is in. His case before the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) will be heard on Friday, 16 April.

While normal viewers might not know, the news bulletins supplied to the SABC TV channels are delivered to them by the news division, over which the channels have little or no control - and SABC3 is NOT happy with Mahendra Raghunath suddenly begin taken off. I've also done several stories here as well as in the newspapers about the beleaguered SABC TV News department with a massive amount of unhappy, irritated, sad and angry SABC news personnel. A large number of them constantly talk about how bad it is there, to me as well as other journalists.

I asked SABC3 whether the broadcaster is concerned about not having Mahendra Raghunath reading the news anymore, also given Solly Mokoetle, the SABC group CEO's admission last month in parliament that SABC3's news bulletin is in a serious nosedive regarding its viewership which i told you about RIGHT HERE.

''It's a serious concern for the channel. It has been a concern because even before it came to Solly Mokoetle's attention [because] our viewers complained about it,'' Buli Siwani, SABC3's acting marketing manager told me when I asked her. ''Also the programming manager was not happy as well. He wants to make sure that this gets sorted out as well,'' she says. ''Also, the way of the delivery of the news – we have been saying for the longest time, the way that the SABC presenters are used is stuck in a formula. We need to be more dynamic with the times. Peoples' taste change and they're stuck in that box. I think now that they know that Solly Mokoetle is watching them, that something is going to happen. All along complaints from the channels have fallen on deaf ears.''