The Constitutional Court will on Thursday pass judgment on whether or not eight employees should be dismissed for singing a song which advocated for “hitting the boer”.

Duncanmec‚ a company manufacturing refuse-handling equipment in Johannesburg‚ dismissed the employees in 2013 after they embarked on an unprotected strike due to an overtime dispute.

The workers were not dismissed because of the unprotected strike‚ but rather for singing a struggle song in isiZulu that‚ in English‚ translates to: "Climb on top of the roof and tell them my mother is rejoicing when we hit the boer".

The workers challenged their dismissal in the Metal and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council.

The arbitrator found that the employees had been unfairly dismissed and ordered their reinstatement with three months’ back-pay‚ instead of the 12 months they were entitled to.

In July 2016‚ the Labour Court dismissed Duncanmec’s application to review the arbitrator’s award.