In plain black and white Rugby is a sport with a painful history of racism
● “It is completely untrue and unfounded to claim that I physically or racially abused anyone in Langebaan, as has been reported on social media.
“Multiple witnesses can corroborate that. I am and will always strive to be a true ambassador to this beautiful rainbow nation and the sport that I love,” he wrote in a post on Facebook.
With those words, Eben Etzebeth jetted off to Japan to play in the Rugby World Cup for the Springboks.
The fires of the racism allegation and assault against him refused to die and raged on relentlessly.
The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has picked up the cudgels on behalf of the alleged victims.
They are hellbent on demanding justice for an act of demeaning injustice.
There is a case between the people of Langebaan and Eben Etzebeth.
In case you had taken a retreat to the resort of Orania, the SA Rugby Union (Saru) decided to take a criminal suspect to Japan for him to be watched by a global audience.
Of course, we are proceeding from the premise of the person in question being presumed innocent until proven guilty.
But this saga has set tongues wagging because it happened in a country with a peculiar history.
The person who has allegations to answer comes from a sport with a painful history with racism.
Rugby brings about a war of wills. To some sections of our populace, rugby conjures up images of spinetingling glory.
To others, the memory is that of spinechilling gory.
Ours is a country where a vast majority of those who supported apartheid mysteriously died before the first votes of democracy were cast.
Those who are alive, when their racism rears its ugly head, fend it off with a
To some of us, rugby conjures up spinetingling glory. To others, spine-chilling gory
“some of my friends are black” balderdash and the sun rises in the east the following day as they go about their business with gay abandon.
We do live among those who go to Greece and find it fit to take a video of the blue waters of the beach and delight at the sight of there being not a single k ***** spoiling the ambience.
Remember Bees Roux?
He bashed a traffic policeman to death with his bare hands and washed off his dastardly deed by paying R750,000 compensation money to the family of the victim.
What is the message?
Kill, flash the Madibas to the family, pay and get a suspended sentence? Etzebeth didn’t kill.
But using words like h ****** , as alleged, kills the spirit of a victim who is relegated to a second-class citizen.
But if Eben did this thing, how does he look Springbok skipper Siya Kolisi in the eye and say he is my best chum?
If it turns out to be true that his fists had a joint venture with the jaws of the victims and racial verbal bile was spewed by his mouth, it will throw up interesting dynamics in terms of his relations with the rest of his non-white teammates.
What does he see when he looks at Elton Jantjies, Herschel Jantjies, Cheslin Kolbe, Warrick Gelant and Damien Willemse?
Do they reside in the ranks of h ***** ? Dare I ask, do Makazole Mapimpi, Sbu Nkosi, Bongi Mbonambi, Tendai “Beast” Mtawarira, Siya Kolisi and Trevor Nyakane become k ****** ?
How are those people supposed to run on the field with him to have his back and him their back?
Etzebeth protests that he is innocent. He could have saved everyone the trouble by looking Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus in the eye and say I didn’t do it; and because I care about the goals of the group more than my own interest, I’ll just step down and give myself time to clear the dark cloud that’s hanging over my head.
What happens if that which has been dismissed as an untruth turns out to be true?
Twitter: @bbkunplugged99