Cape Town - Minister of Sport and Recreation, Tokozile Xasa, on Monday refrained from commenting after SuperSport published the outcome of the independent review into the sensational May 19 on-air incident involving Ashwin Willemse, Nick Mallett and Naas Botha.
No suggestions of racism were found on the part of presenters Mallett and Botha, while SuperSport CEO Gideon Khobane confirmed that Willemse himself refrained from taking part in the review process with Advocate Vincent Maleka SC.
Khobane said that Mallett and Botha would return to on-air duty in the near future on a date to be confirmed.
He added that they would make an attempt to sit down with Willemse regarding a way forward.
Xasa’s spokesperson, Vuyo Mhaga, told Netwerk24 that the minister would thoroughly examine the report before commenting on its findings.
A day after Willemse’s walkout on live TV, Xasa had called for the suspension of Botha and Mallett.
“This behaviour of entitlement by some white South Africans who continue to think that their whiteness represent better must come to an end, if it was not for a barbaric nonsensical apartheid system that privileged them we could not have implemented quota system to normalise an otherwise abnormal system. The continued appearance of Mallet and Botha will be seen as an endorsement of their alleged racist behaviour,” Xasa said in a statement released on May 20.
On Tuesday, Xasa’s spokesperson said: “The minister can’t comment on a report she has not yet read through.”
READ: The full Ashwin Willemse studio walk-off report
