Television sports presenter Eben Jansen has been suspended after comments made on Tuesday night’s e-tv news bulletin, the Cape Argus reported on Thursday.
Jansen faces a disciplinary hearing next week over remarks he exchanged on air with sports journalist Craig Marais about claims that Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson had groped a Cape Town woman.
Nadia Abrahams (21) alleged that Ferguson touched her leg last week, after she gave him a lift back to his hotel following a night out at a Cape Town jazz bar.
Public prosecutions director Frank Kahn later called her charge against Ferguson a waste of time, and refused to prosecute.
The paper said that on Tuesday night’s main news bulletin, Marais made statements suggesting he thought Ferguson might not have been completely innocent in the matter.
Later Jansen again commented on the incident.
e-tv director, Quraysh Patel confirmed Jansen had been suspended on Wednesday.
He said an investigation had started into whether comments by the sports editor were unprofessional. ”What they (Marais and Jansen) discussed was not scripted for the news bulletin,” he said.
Patel said e-tv was not prepared to comment further as Jansen was to be given a chance to speak and the result of the hearing could be affected. – Sapa