A FAMOUS GROUSE
IT is perhaps for the better that Ashwin Willemse is taking the SuperSport matter to the Equality Court; shoehorning the controversy within a racial context will restore moral order and present the readily outraged with a familiar, comforting paradigm.
More than a month has passed since the former Springbok walked off a live broadcast, accusing his stunned fellow analysts Nick Mallet and Naas Botha of “patronising” him.
Not having the slightest clue as to what had led to this display, woke South Africa immediately assumed the default position and cried racism. After all, had Willemse not publicly complained of being labelled a quota player and being undermined by colleagues he in turn then labelled apartheid players?
In the days that followed, SuperSport management interviewed all parties concerned. These were positive talks, they said; all three analysts were prepared to work together and they found no suggestion of racism in the incident.
But despite the “good progress initially”, SuperSport failed to resolve the matter and then instructed a senior advocate, Vincent Maleka, to review the incident.