CCMA Orders ANN7 Reinstate Asanda Magaqa, Awards Damages

The CCMA has ruled that ANN7's dismissal of Asanda Magaqa late last year was unfair andhas awared damages.

Asanda left ANN7 late last year when she was unfairly dismissed for allegedly assaulting a colleague, making death threats and insubordination. Hajra Omarjee represented Asanda during the internal disciplinary process and after the outcome of this process was revealed, Omarjee too decided to resign in what eventually became an exodus of experienced journalists including prime time anchor Chantal Rutter Dros.

When Asanda left the channel, her excellent Sunday morning media show, Between the Lines was also 'suspended,' with the channel saying the format was not working and that it would return as soon as its format had been tweaked. We are still waiting for it to return.

The CCMA has ordered ANN7 to pay Asanda the sum of R500 000, the equivalent of ten months' salary. [It must be really awkward having your salary revealed in that way especially in journalism where salaries vary greatly].

Though the CCMA also ordered ANN7 to reinstate Asanda, whether she would go back is another thing. For monthd after her dismissal she continuously tweeted that she was done doing television altogether and when one Tweeter (I think that is what they are called) asked her when she would return, she replied by saying that she served her sentence on television already. [Either way, I would still absolutely LOVE to have an established and talented journalist like Asanda back on ANN7, a channel that now has very few experienced reporters].

On the victory, Asanda tweeted, "Thank you my friends... Your messages in my DM's & WhatsApp gave me strength... Your prayers kept me going :-)"

[Asanda please come back].

ANN7 Quietly "Suspends" media show Between the Lines

Host on ANN7's Between the Lines, Asanda Magaqa, talking to frequent guest Moegsien Williams, editor of ANN7 and The New Age

ANN7, DStv 405, has silently suspended the excellent media review show, Between the Lines, which is hosted by the wonderful Asanda Magaqa.

I noticed two weeks ago that the show, which brings together various top editors to discuss the weeks top stories and how the media covers them, was no longer on the air.

Later, Asanda herself stated that the show has been "suspended," with no official word from the channel themselves.

Asanda joined ANN7 from Power FM earlier this year to launch Between the Lines, which has, or should I say had, a live weekly premiere on a Sunday morning at 9am.

Since the suspension, Asanda has also removed any references to ANN7 from her twitter profile, so it is highly unlikely that the show would be back, though I would LOVE to be wrong on this one.

Between the Lines, along with Media Monitor on SABC News were the only shows on SA television dedicated solely to covering the media. Though eNCA's Maggs on Media does have a segment about the, uhm, media every now and then, it is a show about advertising (for any writers out there that keep referring to that show as a media review show).

Between the Lines was really one of ANN7's top speciality programmes, along with Political Edge. Both shows never had a dull week in attracting top notch guests to discuss relevant topics.I would rather have had one of the channel's countless entertainment shows cancelled instead.