Errol Tobias, the first black man to play a rugby Test for the South African national side, has spoken exclusively to HuffPost about his reaction to the incident in which former Bok and rugby analyst Ashwin Willemse walked off set during a live broadcast.
I was stunned and shocked by what happened at SuperSport. Errol Tobias
Tobias made a surprising comparison, saying the Willemse situation brought back memories of the "sinister" way in which he was dumped from SuperSport for no reason.
"I was stunned and shocked by what happened at SuperSport. As you might remember, I was a rugby commentator/pundit at SuperSport — and for some sinister reason, my contract was just stopped. Till this day, I have not been given a reason."
"When I saw Ashwin, the bell did ring, back to when I was there in 2007."
HuffPost spoke to Clinton van der Berg, a communications manager at SuperSport, about these allegations. He responded: "Unfortunately, Errol Tobias' involvement at SuperSport predates any of our current senior production staff being employed at SuperSport, so it is difficult to get first-hand information.
"However, it is the nature of independent contractor contracts that they are not open-ended and vary in nature, duration, etc. Contractors are, in effect, 'freelancers', and it is SuperSport's prerogative when, and how often, they are used.
"No player should be branded 'a quota player'. In my time, we had outstanding Boks, all of them quality players as good as their white counterparts."
"It is highly unlikely that Errol would not have been given a reason for SuperSport no longer requiring his services. [However], prejudice of any kind is not tolerated by SuperSport."
Tobias believes that SA rugby has a long way to go — he said it needs to relook at its approach to the game and work hard to change the view of rugby being a "white sport".
"No player should be branded 'a quota player'. In my time, we had outstanding Boks, all of them quality players as good as their white counterparts."
Although Tobias was quick to stress that during his time as a Bok player, he was treated with the greatest respect, he was nevertheless "stunned and shocked" by the events that unfolded on Saturday.
Watch the video here: