Lions clear up racism incident

UPDATE: The Golden Lions have revealed their findings on the alleged racism incident between Roodepoort and Wanderers Rugby Clubs.

The incident occurred during an under-21 match between the two Johannesburg clubs on Wednesday, April 25.

Wanderers club publicly levelled accusations of physical and racial abuse against Roodepoort players and spectators. The club’s players reported to their coach that there was racial abuse being directed towards them.

Consequently, Wanderers put a statement out to the media and also posted on social media.

Roodepoort responded with a statement of their own and also conducted an internal investigation which found no evidence that could confirm Wanderers’ claims.

Nonetheless, back in May, GLRU President Kevin de Klerk told rugby365 that they take the matter “very serious” and launched an investigation of their own.

Following months of investigating, the GLRU released a statement in regards to their findings.

According to the GLRU’s statement, the independent disciplinary committee found no form of racism was exercised during or after the match. Instead, the committee did suspend Ruben Chambers for four games after being found guilty of contravening Rule 10(A) of the Laws of Rugby: Striking another Player with a hand, arm or fist.

The statement also read: “The GLRU recommended that all players involved in the incident attend a workshop on Human Rights and Racism and will be partnering with the Human Rights Commission to facilitate the conversation in an attempt to prevent any further similar situations,”

This is not the first time the Wanderers have been involved in a similar incident.  In 2009,  Eldoronians and the same Wanderers were involved in a match that was abandoned in the second half, amid allegations of violent conduct and racism.

While another incident forced the Union to banned Edenvale following their racist altercations and Soweto.

Related article:

Lions have ‘zero tolerance’ for racism