Baroka FC say they will conduct an internal investigation following an alleged racist incident in their match against Cape Town City this past Sunday.
The sides played out to a hotly contested 1-1 draw, but at the end of the encounter tempers flared as a bad tackle on Surprise Ralani from behind by Basil Mphahlele sent the benches into a frenzy.
It was thought that the challenge caused the anger, but it has since emerged that an alleged racist remark came from the Baroka bench.
It is believed the comment was ‘You coloureds think this is Cape Town, this is not Cape Town’ before following it up with ‘You coloureds think you can do something here’.
Baroka team manager Richard Mashabane has since said there will be an internal investigation.
‘I wasn’t near to the bench so I didn’t hear anything, but the Cape Town people were not happy,’ Mashabane told IOL Sport.
‘It’s our duty to investigate and find out what exactly happened because Cape Town City are our brothers. We need to respect each other. We know emotions run high sometimes, but there’s no excuse for anything racist. We will investigate.’
Meanwhile, Cape Town City chairman John Comitis said they will lodge a report with the PSL detailing the alleged racist incident.
‘The game was littered with regrettable incidents, which the club feels were not correctly managed by the officials,’ Comotis told IOL Sport.
‘It is not for clubs to comment on Safa and their provided referees, but we feel at this stage it has become a moral obligation to recommend that these incidents are looked into retrospectively and with referee accountability.
‘The safety and dignity of the Cape Town City players were not protected. After the horrific Ralani incident, there was a further regrettable moment of racist abuse towards various coloured members of Cape Town City by a member of the Baroka technical staff.
‘Neither incidents were correctly sanctioned, and the club finds itself without a mechanism to adequately address what is clearly an issue in the accountability and standard of referees provided by Safa to the best professional league in Africa.’
