Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile and his deputy Gert Oosthuizen put in an unexpected appearance on Friday at the South African Rugby Union (Saru) President’s Council meeting at Johannesburg International airport.
The president of the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc), Moss Mashishi, was also present at the meeting which was called to discuss the future of Saru president Brian van Rooyen.
The embattled president looked relaxed and cheerful ahead of the meeting, which is being attended by the presidents of the 14 provincial rugby unions.
Saru Vice-President Mike Stofile (whose brother is the minister), said the outcome of the meeting was not a foregone conclusion — depsite the growing opposition to Van Rooyen.
If a vote of no confidence against Van Rooyen was adopted an interim committee to run the affairs of rugby could be in place by later on Friday.
However, if Van Rooyen was persuasive enough he could remain in position until special elections in 21 to 30 days.
The SA Rugby Players’ Association (Sarpa) — the mouth-piece of professional players — on Thursday joined the calls for Van Rooyen to resign.
In a letter from Sarpa chief executive Piet Heymans to Van Rooyen, the organisation pulled no punches in requesting Van Rooyen to step down.
”After surveying the views of our members on this [issue] the feedback confirmed that the players have lost faith in the leadership of South African rugby. In addition they believe that all the infighting and bad publicity has resulted in the administrators bringing the game of rugby into disrepute,” Heymans wrote.
”Furthermore, just as the administrators expect from the players to perform professionally the players are expecting the administrators to perform in a professional and business like manner.
”This is currently not the case and we believe self-interest is at the order of the day and as a result rugby is suffering and the image of the sport being damaged. As a result we would like to call on you to step down as the president of the South African Rugby Union (Saru). By taking this step we are hopeful it will assist that the infighting would come to an end and that rugby can return to focus on rugby matters alone,” he wrote. – Sapa