South African workers sacked for singing allegedly offensive anti-apartheid struggle songs during a strike should not have been dismissed, the country’s top court ruled on Thursday.
Duncanmec, which makes refuse-handling equipment, fired nine workers who embarked on an illegal strike in 2013 and sang what the company deemed a racist song.
The disputed song included the lyrics: “climb on top of the rooftop and shout that my mother is rejoicing when we hit the boers (white Afrikaners)”.
The company went to the Constitutional Court seeking to have its decision to sack the workers upheld after a long legal battle. It argued that political protest songs had no place in the modern workplace.
It said because the song was sung in front of managers in a disrespectful and aggressive way and that it ought to be considered racist conduct or hate speech.
