Support floods in for Willemse
THE ANC in the Western Cape came out in support of SuperSport presenter and former Springbok Ashwin Willemse, while Sport and Recreation Minister Toko Xasa urged all South Africans to use sport to unite, create social cohesion and build the nation, saying “racist elements must be exposed and isolated”.
Willemse stormed off the set of the post-match analysis after an apparent disagreement with fellow panelists Nick Mallett and Naas Botha on Saturday. It is not yet clear what led to the incident, Willemse appeared to voice his grievances with Botha and Mallett live on air before walking off the set.
“I played this game for a long time, like all of us here. As a player I was labelled a quota player for a long time.
“I’ve worked hard to earn my respect in this game, so I’m not going to be patronised by two players who played in apartheid, a segregated era, who come and want to undermine me,” said Willemse, as the broadcast cut from the final scenes from Ellis Park and moved straight into the scheduled post-match analysis.
“I can’t work with people who undermine other people. So you (Botha and Mallet) can sit and laugh about it, but you know exactly what happened. I don’t mind, I’m glad it happened, so people can see because you two sit here…” said the 36-year-old former Springbok before he promptly walked off the set. SuperSport said it was aware of the incident and would investigate.
Xasa expressed shock at “the alleged behaviour of rugby analysts at SuperSport studios”. “This behaviour of entitlement by some white South Africans who continue to think that their whiteness represents better must come to an end, if it was not for a barbaric nonsensical apartheid system that privileged them we would not have implemented a quota system to normalise an otherwise abnormal system,” she said.
The ANC in the Western Cape said: “This incident brings to the surface so much hurt and humiliation suffered by the black rugby community, especially after unification and we expected so much more.” It said Willemse has struck a blow against “ongoing denigration of our rugby history – where greats like Salie Fredericks and Zola Yeye are never mentioned in the statistics. If SA Rugby does not transform, not just in black numbers, but in the management of the game… then we should consider putting rugby in quarantine until they are ready to play international rugby again.” – Staff reporter and African News Agency (ANA)