The SA Rugby hearing of former Spears CEO Tony McKeever, who stands accused of ”adversely affecting” the rugby body in media interviews, has been postponed until the end of January or the beginning of February next year.
This follows McKeever’s attorney, Frikkie Erasmus, questioning the jurisdiction of SA Rugby over the Spears and McKeever.
SA Rugby’s chairperson of the judiciary committee, Koos Basson, wrote to McKeever on October 9, declaring that there was no South African Rugby Union (Saru) jurisdiction over the Spears as the SA Rugby code of conduct does not apply to them.
Also at issue is the existence of three codes of conduct, put out by SA Rugby for the South African Rugby Football Union, Saru and SA Rugby, and Erasmus wanted to know which of these codes applied to McKeever.
Erasmus told the hearing’s presiding officer, advocate Jannie Lubbe, that it was common knowledge that following a June 8 2005 president’s council agreement, SA Rugby was ”to financially support and/or procure sponsors for the Spears in 2006” only, and have them play in the 2006 Absa Currie Cup and the 2007/08 Super 14 competitions.
Yet, this year, despite SA Rugby including the Spears in the Absa Currie Cup fixture list, the Spears never participated in any SA Rugby fixtures or competitions, and were, according to Judge Dennis Davis’s high-court order of August 4, ”unlawfully excluded from the 2006 Absa Currie Cup”.
Erasmus said the Spears would only have fallen under the jurisdiction of SA Rugby once they played in an SA Rugby-organised fixture or competition — and this never happened.
To Erasmus’s amazement, SA Rugby’s general manager of legal affairs, Christo Ferreira, made a submission 10 minutes before the hearing was due to start that acknowledged the acceptance and recognition of the Spears, going back to the franchise participation agreement and Davis’s court order in favour of the Spears.
Based on Davis’s judgement, Lubbe declared there was indeed jurisdiction over the Spears and ordered the postponement of McKeever’s hearing for ”adversely affecting SA Rugby” through various media statements. — Sapa