Kings board member in hot water for calling Mallett a 'racist'

Cape Town - Bantwini Matika, a member of the Southern Kings' executive council, is in hot water after claiming that rugby analyst Nick Mallett is a racist.

According to Netwerk24, the Kings have labelled Matika's comments "totally unacceptable" after he took to Facebook to share his displeasure at the news that Mallett would help pick the next Kings coach.

It was reported earlier in the week that Mallett would help the executive council of the Southern Kings pick a replacement for Deon Davids.

Matika, whose Facebook post has since been removed, wrote: (sic) "As a board member of the Kings I don’t think it’s true that we need help from Racist Mallet to find a suitable coach for our team. Mallet is not suitable to help us and look for a coach who will be dedicated to. build a totally transformed Kings Team. Mallet will never support our trans formation agenda and therefore ill equipped to choose an appropriate coach for the Kings. The board has not made any decision on the selection process and the Kind of candidate we need as Kings to demonstrate to the country what needs to be done in our franchise."

Loyiso Dotwana, chairperson of the Kings' board, told Netwerk24 that Matika's comments "do not represent the views of the executive council of the Kings" and that "we've already started with a process to handle the matter internally".

Matika, however, told the Afrikaans publication he was unaware of any plans the Kings had to discipline him.

Mallett, who coached the Springboks between 1997 and 2000, was involved in a racial storm last year when he and Naas Botha were accused by fellow SuperSport pundit Ashwin Willemse of racism.

However, an internal investigation into the matter cleared Mallett and Botha of any wrongdoing.

The report earlier in the week indicated that Mallett will be assisted in the process by Tim Southey, a former Proteas manager and Cricket South Africa High Performance Manager.

The Kings, who compete in the PRO14, recently parted ways with Davids, who had been at the helm since 2016.

The new Kings coach has a tough task at hand, as the team struggled in their first two seasons in the PRO14.

In the 2018/19 season the Kings finished bottom of Conference B, winning just two of 21 matches and in their debut season in 2017/18 they won just one of 21 in the same conference.