Springbok captain John Smit has been accused of racism after allegedly taunting a Samoan bouncer who ordered him to leave a Sydney bar, a report said on Tuesday.
Smit called the bouncer a ”black …” at Hugo’s Lounge in the busy nightlife district of Kings Cross in the early hours of Monday morning, The Daily Telegraph reported.
Security staff accused Smit of making the racial slur while drunk and ”obnoxious” after drinking with a group of about eight teammates until about 1am.
The Springboks flew into Sydney on Sunday after their loss to the All Blacks in New Zealand the previous day and left for Johannesburg on Monday.
South African Rugby Union deputy chief executive Mveleli Ncula told the newspaper by telephone from Cape Town that an investigation will be launched if a formal complaint is received.
”It is the first time I have heard about it,” Ncula was quoted as saying. ”It is a surprise, he is normally a very mild person.”
The doorman, Allan Teli, told The Daily Telegraph Smit was ”bumping into people and I asked him if he would follow me outside”.
”He said no, but I asked him again before he was escorted out.”
Teli said that when they reached the top of the stairs leading out of the bar, Smit was again unwilling to leave.
”I said, ‘Sir, it’s time to go,’ and that’s when he called me a ‘black …’. A number of players dragged him away and they left. But there was no need for that.
”I’d been speaking to a few of them [Springboks] earlier in the night and actually asked if I could get an autograph before they left. They were cool.”
The Daily Telegraph said another doorman, Greg Ward, confirmed Teli’s version of events.
”Every one of them was fine, they were polite guys, and a couple of the black South Africans were talking to Al,” Ward was quoted as saying.
”But this bloke was intoxicated on the premises. He really resented being asked to leave and called Al a ‘black …’.”
The accusation against the highly rated Springbok captain is likely to create shockwaves in South Africa, where allegations of racism continue to dog rugby more than 10 years after the country’s black majority came to power. — Sapa-AFP