Golden Lions vice-president Brian van Rooyen is the new South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu) president after incumbent Silas Nkanunu revealed at the union’s annual general meeting at Newlands on Friday that he would not stand for the post.
The shock move came a day after coach Rudolf Straeuli and managing director Rian Oberholzer resigned from their posts on Thursday.
Van Rooyen will remain in the position for a minimum period of two years — until the next election.
”A great challenge lies ahead. I’m moving in as president without a CEO or a [Springbok] coach, so we’ve got to work on it,” said Van Rooyen shortly after his elevation to the presidency.
”I’m happy [with the outcome]. Democracy has shown that it can work,” he added, visibly pleased.
The complete clean-out that was demanded by fans, players and critics ahead of the annual general meeting has now become a reality and has temporarily lifted the gloom that was hanging over the game in this country.
”I’m happy that I’m moving out of that door with my head held high,” said Nkanunu in his closing address at the meeting.
Before announcing his decision, Nkanunu delivered the union’s annual report, admitting partial responsibility for the recent crisis in South African rugby.
”Leadership needs to take responsibility when things go wrong,” he said, ”and I accept responsibility, not for causing the problems, but that it happened during my watch.”
Nkanunu intimated that despite not opposing Van Rooyen for the presidency, he wished to still be involved in some way in rugby in South Africa.
The 70-year-old Port Elizabeth lawyer was recently voted in as vice-chairperson of the International Rugby Board (IRB) and will continue in his capacity in that regard.
”2004 is going to be a difficult year,” he warned Van Rooyen.
The issue of transformation was also addressed in his report.
”The Springboks is where the success of transformation is judged and hopefully celebrated. I must admit we have failed here.
”We have failed to deliver on our promise [of transformation]. It is a responsibility I accept with a heavy heart,” said Nkanunu.
Nkanunu and Oberholzer may have departed in acrimonious circumstances, but they did leave a rosy balance sheet behind. Sarfu recorded a net profit of R4,9-million for the financial year to September 30 2003.
This increases the union’s accumulated reserves to R47,7-million. It is a significant improvement from the situation in 1997 when Sarfu’s reserves stood at a negative R14-million.
Nkanunu also announced that the upcoming King commission hearings into racism in rugby would be split into two parts. The first will deal with the Geo Cronje/Quinton Davids saga, former Springbok communications manager Mark Keohane’s report and the infamous Kamp Staaldraad.
The second will be a broader investigation ”into prejudice in the game”. It hopes to find solutions to deal with racism and according to Nkanunu could be stretched to include other sporting codes in South Africa. — Sapa