We may finally be a little closer to knowing what happened on Saturday, when Ashwin Willemse clashed with Nick Mallett and Naas Botha, thanks to “four sources with direct knowledge of the fallout”.

Sport24 ran an exclusive yesterday, in which they laid out a blow-by-blow chronological dissection of what led to Ashwin walking off the set, according to those afore-mentioned sources.

It starts with the match before the Lions, which saw the Sharks pip the Chiefs, but let’s just read that timeline in its entirety.

Here goes:

· Willemse, Botha and Mallett were all part of the panel that commented on the Lions game (that started at 17:15) as well as the prior game between the Sharks and the Chiefs that started at 15:05.

· Prior to the Sharks game, Mallett and Willemse took up most of the time analysing the teams before kick-off.

· After the Sharks game, all three former Springboks got an opportunity to analyse the game. All three commentators and Mohono wear earpieces through which the producer of the show give instructions.

· At 17:05 the pre-game analysis of the Lions game started, with Mohono telling her guests they would have ten minutes to talk about the game before kick-off.

· Both Mallett and Botha took approximately 90 seconds each to speak about Lions flyhalf Elton Jantjies who played in his 100th Super Rugby game.

· After three minutes, the discussion was cut-short without Mohono’s prior knowledge and before she could give Willemse an opportunity to speak.

· Mohono and her guests were all shocked that their segment was cut down from ten to three minutes, before she could ask Willemse’s views. It was disclosed that she and her guests couldn’t hear the producer count down through their earpieces.

· After they were cut short, Botha turned to Willemse and said: “Sorry Ash that you didn’t get a chance to speak”. Willemse did not react and they proceeded to watch the Lions game.

· While they were off-air, Mallett asked the producer and Mohono to go to Willemse first after the game because he did not have a chance to speak prior to the game.

· Willemse walked in-and-out of the studio during the Lions game. A claim on social media that Willemse did not watch the game at all was rubbished by SuperSport, who told Sport24 there was “nothing out of the ordinary about his shift”. He went for smoke breaks and bathroom visits during the game.

We did say that WhatsApp screenshot doing the rounds was rubbish. Moving on:

· During the half-time analysis of the Lions match, Willemse participated in the on-air discussion.

· After the game, before going on air, Botha said to Willemse: “it’s all yours” and laughed. Sources with knowledge of the dynamic between the presenters told Sport24 it was not an unusual tone for Botha to take. “Three-quarters of the time they are joking with each other.”

· When they went on air, Mohono went straight to Willemse for post-match analysis. Willemse proceeded to ask Botha for his views, until Mallett stepped in and gave his analysis. When Mohono went back to Willemse, he had his flare-up and walked off.

At the meeting on Monday, after which those first public comments from the three parties emerged, Ashwin apparently said he was “triggered by Botha’s comment “it’s all yours” followed by laughing”.

During that Monday meeting, sources say that Nick Mallett and Ashwin had “heated interactions”, but ended with all three parties agreeing that racism wasn’t the cause of the incident.

Here’s quite a zinger, though – the article states that many at SuperSport are openly speculating that Willemse was “trying to launch his political career”.

There’s no further information available on that angle, which is a pity because it seems to be a rather important aspect, but is mentioned as a throwaway line.

Of course this all comes via the inside sources Sport24 spoke with, and SuperSport are still keeping their cards close to their chest:

It is unclear whether Willemse had officially complained to the channel about Mallett and Botha or if he plans to open further racism charges with a statutory or constitutional body.

By Thursday, there had been no confirmation regarding when the next meeting between the three analysts would take place, although they are all expected to be in the studio together on Saturday to resume Super Rugby business as usual.

When asked about the technical error, a SuperSport spokesperson said they could not comment because doing so might compromise the ongoing investigation.

It’s good that SuperSport are taking their time and gathering as much information as possible before making a decision, but it does mean that this story has continued to spiral into something much larger than one man walking off a set.

Here’s a crazy thought – maybe Ashwin was having a bad day and overreacted, and given the chance to replay the incident he might do it differently the second time around.

Another crazy thought – the thousands of South African people of colour who instantly related to Ashwin feeling spoken down to are drawing on actual, real-life experiences that are painful when brought to the fore, the likes of which many South Africans who were quick to judge will never understand.

This one snowballed because it touched a nerve with so many people, but if no one is willing or keen to listen to a different perspective I guess we’ll just keep on keepin’ on, and stories like these will continue to be divisive.

[source:sport24]