A planned protest at Cape Town Stadium on Saturday by Western Province clubs against SA Rugby’s administration of the union has been written off as the disapproval of a small minority. DYLAN JACK reports.
The Western Province Rugby Football Union (WPRFU) was placed under SA Rugby’s administration in 2021, as the union faced a mountain of debt owing to deals relating to the sale of Newlands Stadium.
When SA Rugby took control of the WPRFU, the union’s executive was suspended and this is the subject of the planned protest by a handful of clubs.
The clubs are led by former WPRFU vice-president Ronald Bantom, who this week told Netwerk24, that a “whole lot” of clubs will be protesting against the administration ahead of the match between the Stormers and Sharks in Cape Town on Saturday.
However, former executive committee member and shareholder director Kevin Kiewitz told SARugbymag.co.za that the protests were not, in fact, representative of how the majority of Western Province clubs feel.
“It’s important to say that these people who are talking in the newspapers are not talking about my club. I am the president of Tygerberg rugby club. We have supported the appointment of an administrator to resolve the legal and financial issues of Western Province. We have the support, in writing, of many clubs of Western Province. We have sent that to SA Rugby.
“This demonstration on Saturday is not in the name of my club or the clubs that have supported this process.
“I am reluctant to get involved at this level, but I have to come out because my club has mandated me to go on record and say that this game has become so dirty. Most of us work in the commercial space and we don’t want to be tainted. The silence of the majority of clubs is not because people don’t want to say something. It’s hard for decent people, working for companies, to get involved in this kind of mudslinging.
“One of our colleagues called the office that gave the permit [for the protest]. They were astounded to hear that it’s not all the clubs supporting this thing. The way the application read, was that they were under the impression that it was all the clubs.
“The march is not in our name, my club distances itself from it. We don’t feel comfortable discussing a property deal in the public domain. We don’t want to stand against anyone’s right to protest.
“It is also important to note that we invited and supported the process of the SARU administration. Nobody wants to be in administration in perpetuity, but we have to support the process.
“The bottom line is that we have to settle our debt, so we need the best possible deal and sell our equity while we are doing well because it is at a premium value. Then we need to retain the rest of our properties for our balance sheet going forward.”
A City of Cape Town release circulated on Wednesday confirmed that the clubs had been given permission to gather before the match on Saturday afternoon.
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