MultiChoice CEO Mawela: Willemse, Botha and Mallett shook hands
MultiChoice CEO Calvo Mawela and SuperSport CEO Gideon Khobane say the matter has not been resolved and talks are continuing.
JOHANNESBURG - Management at SuperSport doesn’t believe that the incident that led Ashwin Willemse to walk off set during a live show was racially motivated, but the broadcaster admits that it still needs to determine the cause.
Saturday's events have caused outrage, with many still sharing a video of Willemse telling his fellow panelists, Nick Mallett and Naas Botha, that he won’t be patronised by people who played rugby under the apartheid system and said he had been called a quota player during his days on the field.
LIVE: drama in the @SuperSportTV studio with @Ashwinwillemse @NaasBotha10 and #NickMallet #AshwinWillemse, what happened there?? pic.twitter.com/f1RI33xfQ8
— ORTON Media Photos®™ (@OrtonMediaPhoto) May 19, 2018
MultiChoice and SuperSport held a briefing on the matter on Monday night.
MultiChoice CEO Calvo Mawela and SuperSport CEO Gideon Khobane say the matter has not been resolved and talks are continuing.
SuperSport and Multichoice management met with all those who were part of Saturday's broadcast to get an understanding of what happened.
Khobane says they don't want to rush the investigation process.
“We don’t want to sweep things under the carpet and we don’t want to rush it for the sake of convivence.”
Mawela says there is no animosity among the three men.
“Nick, Naas and Ashwin were all in the same room, they shook hands.”
#AshwinWillemse Nick Mallet has just left the Multichoice building, says he has to go see a doctor. SuperSport CEO Gideon Khobane will address the gathered media informally and there will no longer be a formal press briefing pic.twitter.com/QHuFdhyy4R
— EWN Sport (@EWNsport) May 21, 2018
SuperSport says the analysts will continue with their jobs on the channel.
(Edited by Refilwe Pitjeng)
