The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) was the correct platform to hear the case of the dismissed South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) journalists, and not the Labour Court, the public broadcaster argued on Friday.

"The mechanism provided by the LRA (Labour Relationships Act) requires that once dismissed, an employee should refer the matter to the CCCMA for conciliation and thereafter arbitration before approaching the honourable court," advocate Themba Skosana, for the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) said.

He said the Labour Court was confined to finding that a dismissal was unfair, and did not extend to declaring a dismissal void or unlawful.

The four – Foeta Krige, Suna Venter, Krivani Pillay and Jacques Steenkamp – are among eight journalists who have been sacked by the SABC for questioning recent editorial decisions widely regarded as censorship.

They are being represented by trade union Solidarity and have filed an urgent application to have their dismissals deemed unlawful and set aside by the Labour Court, in Johannesburg.

The group of eight, which also counts Busisiwe Ntuli, Thandeka Gqubule, Lukhanyo Calata and Vuyo Mvoko, were sent termination letters by the public broadcaster on Monday and Tuesday.

Mvoko’s contract would not be extended by the SABC because he publicly disagreed with a ban on showing footage of violent protests, which management this week agreed to revoke after it was challenged in court by the Helen Suzman Foundation.

All eight have also approached the Constitutional Court for direct access to argue to have the ban on airing footage of violence reversed.