/ 25 May 2005

Knives out for rugby management

SA Rugby Union (Saru) deputy president Andre Markgraaff on Tuesday welcomed Minister of Sport and Recreation Makhenkesi Stofile’s call for a formal investigation into the management of the organisation and has announced his conditional resignation from Saru.

The conditions he has laid down are that ”a proper investigation be conducted and that all the members of the management committee of SA Rugby also step down from their positions”.

However, Saru president Brian van Rooyen earlier on Tuesday brushed off a call from the government and South Africa’s highest sports body for him and his executive to step down for the good of the game.

Saru said in a statement he had ”expressed regret” that the move came ”while an agreement was in place to resolve the current crisis in the organisation”.

The call, by the Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc), was announced and backed by Stofile hot on the heels of a meeting in which Van Rooyen came under fire from MPs for what they said was his lack of leadership.

It also followed months of damaging power struggles in the union, complicated by a row over the allocation of Super 14 franchises, and fuelled by the release of a dossier of alleged irregularities committed by Van Rooyen.

Stofile earlier told journalists in Cape Town that he was calling on the leadership of rugby, ”which means the president, his two deputies and his management committee” to step down so that his department could start investigating the ”allegations they are making one against the other”.

He said the proposal was also an attempt to put in place a mechanism that would restore the integrity of the game ”and possibly to ease the confusion which probably is raging through the players’ heads at this point in time”.

Sascoc president Moss Mashishio confirmed his organisation had on Monday sent a written request to the Saru executives to vacate their posts by close of business on Thursday.

Mashishi said Sascoc had in the letter asked Van Rooyen and the other executives not to make themselves available for re-election until the end of the current term in February next year.

Sascoc had proposed that an interim committee of three people — two from Saru and one from Sascoc — be appointed by Sascoc on Wednesday to oversee the day-to-day functions of SA Rugby until the special general council meeting on June 17, when it would be replaced.

Sascoc has also urged the Saru chief executive to ”forward to us urgently all the documentation pertaining to the allegations referred to in the media”, some of which were serious enough to merit a formal investigation.

”Once the new management committee has been elected, a decision should be taken in conjunction with Sascoc as to how this investigation should be conducted,” he said.

”This is our position. It’s a firm position. We may be polite by nature, but we are deadly serious. Of course it’s up to them how they react.”

Stofile said the step had not been taken lightly, and followed eight meetings with Saru in a bid to resolve the crisis, which had only become worse.

Asked about the effect the crisis would have on the 2011 Rugby World Cup, Stofile said it had nothing to do with the tournament.

Challenged on government ”interference” in sport, he said: ”I think we must be careful what language we use. There is a difference between interference and intervention. Those are two different things… That’s not a government interference. It’s a Sascoc intervention, and Sascoc is not government.”

Van Rooyen said in reaction that his organisation shared Sascoc’s view that the dispute in rugby’s leadership was detrimental to the game.

However SA Rugby and Sascoc had agreed that the rugby body would convene an extraordinary general council meeting to decide on the status of the current leadership, and help resolve the ongoing dispute.

”That process is already in place,” said Van Rooyen. ”On Thursday [May 26] we are convening a meeting of the president’s council to help us prepare for the extraordinary meeting scheduled for June 17. That meeting will review and elect key leaders of the organisation.

”We can’t arbitrarily dismiss elected officials without taking into account the Constitution of SA Rugby.”

Markgraaff though backed the minister’s call for the whole executive to quit and for a probe to be conducted.

”As a rugby lover who dedicated my whole life to the game, I am in principle against interference in the affairs of rugby. However, the minister’s acknowledgement that the allegations of mismanagement in SA Rugby merit a formal investigation and that such an investigation is, in fact, going to be conducted, is especially welcome.

”I stand by my commitment to ensure a clean and honest administration in SA Rugby, an independent, unprejudiced and transparent investigation is necessary,” said Markgraaff.

Earlier on Tuesday, Van Rooyen and his deputy Mike Stofile, brother to the minister, appeared along with the presidents of the Eastern Province, South Western Districts and Border rugby unions, before the National Assembly’s sport portfolio committee.

There, African National Congress MP Tsietsi Louw told Van Rooyen that he had been elected to lead the organisation.

”My question is a simple one: Why are you failing to give leadership to rugby and why is the executive failing to lead rugby?” Louw asked.

Other MPs described South African rugby as a ”rudderless ship”, told Van Rooyen there were ”anarchists” in his organisation, and said it was clear rugby had fallen into a state of paralysis.

One of them, Cas Saloojee, even suggested serious consideration be given to setting up a commission of inquiry.

Replied Van Rooyen: ”It’s very difficult to lead if you get a direction from the minister, then you get a direction from Sascoc, then you’ve got the sponsors in between. The trust between the leadership of South African rugby has been broken down to such an extent that we cannot continue to work.

”If I do have the support of the electorate [at the June 17 meeting] I will continue.

”The day that I do not have the support of the electorate I will step down gracefully and say, ladies and gentlemen, you do not want me; thank you very much.”

Democratic Alliance sport spokesperson Donald Lee said the Saru leadership should ignore the call to step down.

”By trying to dismiss the leadership of South African rugby Stofile is showing the ANC’s contempt for democracy,” he said.

”If Brian van Rooyen is to be fired, rugby must do it, not the ANC.” – Sapa