Cosatu has accused Nick Mallett of racism and will boycott SuperSport as the fallout from Ashwin Willemse’s walkout during a live broadcast continues.
Willemse stormed off the SuperSport set during a discussion after the Lions’ Super Rugby victory over the Brumbies on 19 May, alleging that Mallett and Naas Botha had ‘undermined’ and ‘patronised’ him.
An independent investigation, led by senior advocate Vincent Maleka, has since found that no racism was involved, putting Mallett and Botha in the clear to resume their studio duties in due course.
Willemse, who decided not to give testimony throughout the probe because he believed it was ‘not the forum to voice his concerns’, indicated he will approach the Equality Court to rule on the matter.
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In a press statement on Thursday, Cosatu (Congress of South African Trade Unions) gave its support for Willemse and rejected Maleka’s findings.
The report by SuperSport on the Ashwin Willemse issue is a whitewash to cover up the racism still operating in the old white company. Cosatu rejects the report on the basis that it did not consider the letter from Willemse’s attorneys carefully enough; neither did it adequately consider the letter from Mallett to Scott Seward.
This letter reveals the ‘baas-skap’ (boss mentality) mentality of Mallett and how he is led to believe that he can decide which black presenters he works with.
Mallett is a racist who has displayed his attitude in many subtle ways, and this support from SuperSport to him is unacceptable. Mallett and Naas should not be allowed back into SuperSport; otherwise Cosatu will consider a full-scale boycott of SuperSport.
Mallett’s ‘baas-skap’ mentality leads him to have difficulty when a black presenter questions his attempts to use his position to try and talk white players into the Springbok team.
The statement listed further problems the federation has with SuperSport.
– DStv has a monopoly that must be ended by the Competition Commission, as it is an old apartheid company controlled by the Stellenbosch mafia.
– SuperSport has worked with Saru to sell the rights to our national sport and deny South Africans access to the international Test series live on SABC.
– SuperSport has allowed the prevalence of whites in the studio to be completely removed from any employment equity provisions.
It concludes by saying Cosatu’s Western Cape regional secretary, Tony Ehrenreich, will personally be ending his DStv subscription.
