TV REVIEW. The shocking TV-trash rubbish dump that was the 13th SA Sport Awards on SABC1 was a horrific cringe-fest that damages the SABC, SuperSport and SA sport - and has no place on South African television.

The utterly incompetent and horrific TV-trash that was the 13th South African Sport Awards broadcast Sunday night on SABC1 and in the week on SuperSport on MultiChoice's DStv was a shocking, amateurly done cringe-fest that damages the SABC, SuperSport, and sport in this country - a tele-travesty that has no place on South African television.

The rubbish dump broadcast done from the Sand du Plessis theatre in Bloemfontein on Sunday night showed how little respect the minister of sport Tokozile Xasa, South Africa's department of sport, as well as the SABC and SuperSport as the broadcast partners, have for the viewing audience who are subjected to watching this trash at home.

The extremely bad and worst-ever SA Sport Awards since it started being shown on South African television was very poorly done, and a disgusting and extremely disrespectful mess from beginning to its long-overrun ending - with the poor hosts Udo Carelse, Thomas Mlambo and Vaylen Kirtley fronting it, who had to take the fall as the faces of this unvarnished TV dung heap.

Horrifically bad organisation and stage management, sound problems and bad sound, awful and abrupt sound breaks, shoddy and shaky camerawork, link gaffes, a large and shocking number of empty chairs (getting loving, panning camera shots over and over to show how empty the auditorium actually is) and weird silences were just some of the cringe-inducing stuff that were visible in this awful spectacle.

Incompetent and bumbling presenters were clearly not prepped beforehand or told what they are supposed to do. Struggling to read scripts, it was clear that the majority - if not everyone - read what they had to say for the very first time.

A failing autocue (or asleep autocue operator), terrible directing, the apparent lack of a floor manager, winners abruptly getting played off mid-sentence, and even Tokozile Xasa standing on stage clueless as to what to do or say, was emblematic of how truly trash-bad the SA Sport Awards was.

A rural primary school prize-giving end-of-year award night is better organised and will look better on handycam that the disgusting awfulness the SABC and South Africa's department of sport saw "fit" to showcase to South Africa's viewers Sunday night.

The two-and-a-half hour SA Sport Awards live broadcast trash-fest that went half an hour over time was an unmitigated cringe-per-minute disaster.

It was peppered with unintentionally hilarious production mistakes, like viewers hearing Thomas Mlambo talk backstage multiple times ("What do we have to do next?"), while ironically multiple people stood on stage when they were supposed to talk, unable to say anything.

What there was of the auditorium audience in attendance couldn't bother to clap as they blatantly laughed and gawked at the multiple awkward trash-moments on stage as presenter after presenter stood there sheepishly, looking clueless and utterly helpless.

South Africa, South African viewers and South African sport deserve much, much better than this terrible trash that is supposed to highlight, honour and promote sport and the sport heroes in this country.

Who besides Tokozile Xasa is responsible for this trash? Why does the SA Sport Awards - instead of improving - keep getting worse year after year?

Even the dumbfounded dear Toko - stunned into silence - ended up asking from stage and looking perplexed after getting laughed at: "The autocue. Where is it?"

Why does the SABC do a live broadcast of a bad sports awards show that is has clearly shown in the past it is not capable of doing, and continue to do even worse after months of planning and organising? How much money was spent on the broadcast of this travesty?

Whoever sit behind this televised rubbish are so incompetent that they broke several codes and regulations for both competitions and for broadcasting in South Africa by running a voting/viewer competition but failing to disclose - as must happen - the cost of a SMS on-screen. It's basics, people.

Online and on social media, the department of sport and the SA Sport Awards couldn't even get simple words like "Dstv" and "vist" right.

It also hilariously undermined the SABC and SABC1 by begging for votes by promising ... a DStv decoder - literally creating the marketing impression that a DStv decoder and DStv is more desirable and better than anything the SABC could possibly give away to entice people to vote.

South Africa, and South African viewers, deserve much better than this - whether on pay-TV or public access television. Being on free television doesn't mean something can and should be "less than" or outright rubbish.

Incompetent producers and people who don't belong in television-making are inflicting damage on the country's TV industry by continuing to make completely unacceptable television like the SA Sport Awards that is not just an embarrassment but that brings shame on broadcasters like the SABC, SABC Sport and SuperSport who are attaching their brands to this trash.

How are sport stars and South African sportsmen and women supposed to feel about this SA Sport Awards mess? Does what we saw make them look good (better) and honour them, their achievements and their legacy, or does it denigrade their achievements?

Do better - please - people doing and involved with the SA Sport Awards, or stop doing it.

At this point, after this shocking TV trash dumped on viewers, doing nothing will be better than doing it this badly.

SuperSport pulls Ashwin Willemse, Nick Mallett and Naas Botha off the air in ongoing controversy, but says they're not suspended as SuperSport fails to make sufficient headway in its internal investigation.

In the ongoing controversy SuperSport has pulled commentators Ashwin Willemse, Naas Botha and Nick Mallett off air although saying none of them have been fired, with the pay-sportscaster saying its investigation started off good but failed to make sufficient headway.

In a shocking live on-air incident this past Saturday Saturday Ashwin Willemse walked off set in SuperSport's Randburg studios after a verbal altercation with Nick Mallett and Naas Botha that he said on-air he is glad the public get to see, and saying he won't be patronised anymore and won't "work with people that undermine other people".

On Monday Gideon Khobane, SuperSport CEO, still promised that Ashwin Willemse, Naas Botha and Nick Mallett will all appear, and together this Saturday on SuperSport as rugby analysts.

All three have now been dumped from television, although not suspended, and replaced by Victor Matfield, Breyton Paulse and Xola Ntshinga for Saturday.

With a massive and polarising response from South Africans over the incident, SuperSport and MultiChoice have continued to managed the fallout very badly, especially in terms of public relations and the press and damaging the SuperSport brand.

Politicians called for a boycott of DStv and SuperSport and even the minister of sports Tokozile Xasa swiftly calling for the suspension of Naas Botha and Nick Mallett over alleged racism.

After initially saying Ashwin Willemse, Naas Botha and Nick Mallett will all remain on-air, SuperSport is now saying they won't be, but also that they're not suspended.

They are just removed but will continue to be paid according to SuperSport, although presenters are usually only paid if they actually do work which is to appear on television.

"We have had discussions this week with all parties in an effort to resolve this matter amicably and expeditiously," says SuperSport in a statement, with the incident that will now be reviewed by an advocate.

"Despite good progress initially, the matter has unfortunately not been resolved. We have therefore decided to instruct an independent senior counsel, advocate Vincent Maleka, to chair a review of the incident which occurred and to make recommendations to our management."

SuperSport says that "pending the outcome of the review, the three presenters involved will not appear on-air. None of the presenters have been suspended and they will continue to be remunerated in terms of their contracts."

"We are committed to getting to the bottom of this serious issue," says SuperSport.

"Advocate Vincent Maleka has been asked to make findings and recommendations by Monday 11 June 2018."

BREAKING. Sports minister Tokozile Xasa calls on SuperSport to immediately suspend rugby commentators Nick Mallett and Naas Botha after Ashwin Willemse live TV studio walk out.

South Africa's minister of sport and recreation, Tokozile Xasa, in a statement is calling for the immediate suspension of SuperSport rugby commentators Nick Mallett and Naas Botha after the eye-popping walk off incident that saw commentator Ashwin Willemse leave the Randburg studio on live television on Saturday night.

Meanwhile the political party Icosa in the Western Cape on Sunday called on a boycott of MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV service

Tokozile Xasa said "I call upon SuperSport to suspend the two panellists while they are busy with full investigation. The continued appearance of Nick Mallet and Naas Botha will be seen as an endorsement of their alleged racist behaviour".

SuperSport told TVwithThinus on Sunday in response to a media enquiry seeking comment on the minister's comments that "an investigation will take place. SuperSport cannot prejudice any possible findings with a speculative comment. SuperSport will release an updated statement on Monday".

SuperSport on Saturday night told TVwithThinus that it would be conducting an investigation and do interviews with everyone involved after an eye-popping live TV on-air incident on Saturday night that saw an upset commentator Ashwin Willemse walk off set after a verbal altercation in SuperSport's Randburg studio with commentators Nick Mallett and Naas Botha, while presenter Motshidisi Mohono kept the show going.

It's not clear yet what triggered Ashwin Willemse, but in a live SuperSport broadcast scene that quickly went viral on Saturday night after the victory of the Lions of 42-24 over the Brumbies at Ellis Park, the former Springbok wing was clearly upset at both of the two other seated commentators Nick Mallett and Naas Botha.

Tokozile Xasa in a statement says "This behaviour of entitlement by some white South Africans who continue to think that their whiteness represent better must come to an end, if it was not for a barbaric nonsensical apartheid system that privileged them we could not have implemented quota system to normalize an otherwise abnormal system".

"Ashwin Willemse is not just a former Springbok player but in 2003 he was named SA Rugby Player of the Year, Young Player of the Year and the Player’s Player of the Year. Players like Ashwin Willemse, Bryan Habana and Siya Kolisi continue to make us proud as a nation and affirm that they are not token players or quota players."

"It is clear that Ashwin Willemse was referred as a quota player by his fellow panelists despite his many successes in the field of play, I call upon SuperSport to suspend the two panelists while they are busy with full investigation. The continued appearance of Nick Mallet and Naas Botha will be seen as an endorsement of their alleged racist behaviour," said Tokozile Xasa.

Meanwhile The Independent Civic Organisation of South Africa (Icosa), a political party founded by Trueman Prince, in a statement issued by Icosa spokesperson Dawid Kamfer, says Icosa "call on all non-white South Africans to cancel their DStv subscription, till SuperSport remove the likes of Nick Mallet, Naas Botha, Toks Van Der Linde and Kobus Wiese".

"We also want the removal of all presenters who represent apartheid South Africa on the rugby field. No more historical references for statistical purposes of the era before unification".

Faiez Jacobs, provincial secretary of the ANC Western Cape in a statement said on Sunday that "it is disturbed by the incident at SuperSport studios yesterday" and that "we know Ashwin as a strong man who against all odds, pulled himself by the bootstraps out of poverty and out of a written fate for many of the young people who come from his neighborhoods".

"We believe that Ashwin's public walkout is a result of what many black people experience in offices and boardrooms across the country, where being black is a constant source of being undermined, doubted, spoken down upon and largely made to feel outside various social cliques and cores within the same working environment."