The complaint before the Tribunal was that a presenter from the respondent had, during a broadcast, referred to an Alberton School rugby team as “gomgatte”, which amounts to calling them “country bumpkins” or loutish.
The Tribunal held:
That the accusation was directed at a schoolboy who had head-butted an opponent during a rugby game and was sent off by the referee. When the referee attempted to obtain the schoolboy’s name after the match, the latter head-butted the referee. This schoolboy, according to the broadcast, was from a school outside the Alberton area.
That the reference by the presenter indicating that one might have expected such conduct from a schoolboy in Alberton, served to debunk any possible stereotype that this kind of conduct is specific to Alberton.
That, in effect, the statement was not defamatory, but served to show that hooligans may be found anywhere.
The complaint was, accordingly, not upheld.