On the eve of the 2019 World Cup, a major controversy threatened to erupt when Eben Etzebeth was accused of assault and racism during an incident in Langebaan.
The Springbok lock always maintained his innocence and later filed papers in the High Court in Pretoria for the matter to be set aside.
In the midst of the saga, Etzebeth had to contend with hate speech charges from the South African Human Rights Commission, while numerous rumours and allegations continued to swirl in the ‘court’ of public opinion.
However, the charges were ultimately dropped in 2021 when the Western Cape director of public prosecutions ruled the evidence unreliable.
Springbok lock addresses the case in new book
Although Etzebeth has not spoken publicly in detail about the incident, he has given his side of the story in his autobiography Unlocked.
The Springbok lock said the start of the incident sparked off when he was rudely told by a stranger to remove his cap after entering a clubhouse, with Etzebeth confronting the person about the manner in which they had shouted at him from across the room.
What was meant to be a bit of downtime with “friends and family” at the West Coast town then escalated later on at the Watergat nightclub when Etzebeth says they were driving out of the carpark.
“As I was driving out of the car park towards the traffic circle, something hit my car – a brick, I thought – so I circled back, lowered my window and said, ‘Who the f**k threw that?’”
With the matter escalating as a larger crowd gathered, Etzebeth said it became clear that they needed to get out of there as soon as possible.
“As we were making our way to our cars, another missile – this time definitely a brick – went whistling past my friends’ heads. That was our cue to get the hell out of Dodge.
“I never use racist slurs. It’s simply not in my nature, no matter how angry I get. I wasn’t some isolated, bigoted white guy who never mixed with people of colour – my three best friends in the Bok team were Siya [Kolisi], Beast [Mtawarira] and Cheslin [Kolbe], none of whom are white.”
Illustrious career
Despite this case bubbling away in the background back in 2019 and 2020, the Springboks and coach Rassie Erasmus always insisted that they were confident in the veracity of Etzebeth’s account.
He would go on to play a key role in the 2019 World Cup triumph, while he recently reached 100 caps, while also forming part of the team that won a British & Irish Lions series, the 2023 World Cup and last year’s Rugby Championship.
