SuperSport on Tuesday released the report of the Independent Review into the altercation between SuperSport's rugby presenters a few weeks ago.
Following on that saga, Advocate Maleka SC was tasked to head up an independent review into the May 19 on-air incident involving Ashwin Willemse, Nick Mallett and Naas Botha. He initially attempted to resolve the issue amicably and expeditiously by way of discussions with the presenters involved. However, he was unable to resolve the issue.
What followed next was an extensive process which included separate interviews with role players including Naas Botha, Nick Mallett, the anchor on the day (Motshidisi Mohono), the Head of Production for SuperSport, the Executive Producer for rugby, the production manager of the broadcast (Mandla Ntsibande) and the CEOs of MultiChoice and SuperSport.
SuperSport said in Tuesday's media release: "Ashwin regrettably decided not to participate in the review, despite the fact that all parties involved were advised of this process before it started and raised no objections at that time."
Once the process had run its course, Maleka produced a comprehensive 50-page report which has been made available in its entirety to the media on Tuesday.
Maleka said that he conducted on-site inspections which included visiting the studio and viewing a live broadcast in an Outside Broadcast van.
He also interviewed and consulted with Professor Adam Habib, an expert with extensive experience in race relations and considered literature on subtleties of racist conduct.
In the absence of Willemse' input, viewers still don't know why he took the decision to walk out while a live show was in progress. – African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Herman Gibbs
Here is the full report:
http://images.supersport.com/content/IndependentReviewReportIntoSuperSportIncident20180619.pdf
