{A judge on one of South Africa’s biggest TV talent shows, sacked in a row over racism, is to be reinstated after a court ruled in his favour.}<\/p>\n
Gareth Cliff was sacked by M-Net TV after appearing to cite “freedom of speech” as a defence for comments made by a white South African woman, who had referred to black people as “monkeys” in a widely shared Facebook post.<\/p>\n
Auditions for the new season of Idol are due to start in Durban on Saturday.
\nM-Net has not commented on the ruling.<\/p>\n
There have been several high-profile rows over racism on social media in South African in recent months.<\/p>\n
The case at the high court in Johannesburg did not deal directly with Mr Cliff’s comments, but on whether he had a contract with M-Net.<\/p>\n
Judge Caroline Nicholls found that there was a binding contract between the media personality and the pay-TV channel.<\/p>\n
In 2002, Idols was forced to defend itself against accusations of racial prejudice, after a white South African won the first series, despite commentators saying that he was a less talented singer than other black contestants on the show.<\/p>\n
Apartheid, which legally enforced a racial hierarchy privileging white South Africans, ended in 1994 with the election of the country’s first democratic government.<\/p>\n
Source:BBC:[South Africa Idol: Gareth Cliff in court win->http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-africa-35439205]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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