The parents of a 14-year-old youth hockey player associated with the Northerns Blues Hockey Association (NBHA) are up in arms after the teen was allegedly called the K-word during a match last year.
The alleged racial incident took place last October during a Northerns Youth League hockey match in Pretoria between Phoenix Hockey Club and Dinaledi Hockey Club. The parents are outraged that despite reporting the incident, not much has happened since.
An altercation apparently broke out between the two teams. A white Dinaledi player claims to have overheard players from Phoenix HC refer to his black teammate by the K-word.
The young boy ran to the match official to report the racial slur used towards his teammate. The parents were then told of the incident and escalated it to the authorities.
The boy’s mother Portia Moloisane is outraged that promises of investigation into the matter have come to naught thus far.
“Honestly, we are so disappointed with Northerns. There was no disciplinary process in this matter. We have been asking for a hearing with the coaches, umpires, parents, victims and the whistle-blower. No-one has given us a date to hear this case,” said Moloisane.
“They have taken us from pillar to post, with emails back and forth. In the last email [from last week], they are saying there’s not enough evidence because they have requested written affidavits from umpires, victims and also the whistle-blower.” Sowetan has seen the email correspondence.
Moloisane was adamant officials are trying to protect the umpire “because a 12-year-old raised their hand to alert him [the umpire] that this was happening and the umpire just ignored everything”.
She said the alleged racial abuse had left her son and teammate traumatised.
“The whistle-blower heard them refer to my son by the K-word. It broke him, they both cried. If it was a black child who overheard that conversation maybe we’d doubt the story but it was a white child who heard them refer to him [by the k-word]. It was not easy for him.”
NBHA president John Wright said they were not trying to stall the investigation: “I’m surprised the parents have taken this route [of going public]. In every one of the email responses we have been quite clear about what the process is.
“We cannot accuse anyone when no-one is prepared to identify who the perpetrator is. We have asked for affidavits, only one from the umpire has been submitted. The parents expect us as an association to accuse someone of racism, which itself is equally bad. We are caught between a rock and a hard place.”
SA Hockey said it was aware of the case. “The matter will be dealt with by the Northerns Gauteng Association. We will investigate the allegations and deal with them appropriately. We will wait for Northerns to deal with it, then it will be referred to us if it hasn’t been resolved satisfactorily,” said SA Hockey subcommittee member Gordon Pentecost, who is the disciplinary head.
