New legal challenge to SARU after 'sham' meeting

UPDATE: The South African Rugby Union and Western Province Rugby Football Union administrator Peter Jooste have met with new ‘legal’ resistance from a fringe political party and its advocacy group of supporters to their plans to sell the Newlands stadium.

Harold Gie attorneys at the weekend fired off another letter to SARU, the SARU-appointed administrator, Jooste, and Danny Jones, the WPRFU’s GM: Amateur Rugby.

The letter, which @rugby365com has a copy of, confirmed that they are acting on behalf of African Restoration Alliance, a fringe Western Cape political party, William Angelo Fisher and Godfrey Gavin Afrika.

ARA, Fisher and Afrika are at the forefront in the latest coup de main on SARU over its decision to place WPRFU under administration in October 2021.

They filed papers in the Western Cape High Court last month in an attempt to have the administration overturned by asking that Section 29.5 of SARU’s constitution (under which the administration of WPRFU was implemented) be declared unconstitutional.

In their latest dispatch, they strongly objected to a Special General Meeting held last month in which the SARU-appointed administrator, Jooste, was “mandated” to proceed with the sale of Newlands and negotiate a settlement with Flyt/Dreamworld.

“Both the status of the meeting, as well as the purported resolutions adopted at the meeting are of great concern to our clients,” the letter said, adding that they will bring an “urgent application” to halt the process and allow a court to decide the matter.

The letter also excoriated the meeting, calling it a “sham”, as well as Jooste and Jones.

They claimed none of the representatives at the had a mandate to vote on the resolutions presented and said it was an “ambush” by Jooste, who “bullied” the attendees.

“The entire process embarked on by Jooste and his supporters at the meeting is undemocratic, unethical and unconstitutional,” the letter from the lawyers read.

They also address the pending disciplinary hearing of former WPRFU President Zelt Marais, seeking the ‘reinstatement’ of Marais as WPRFU boss.

Marais is having the book thrown at him by SARU. Slapped with a 12-month ban in 2022 for various breaches of the SARU Code of Conduct, faces a new disciplinary hearing.

The new hearing – with a date yet to be determined – includes eight charges for ongoing breaches and his insistence that he is still the WPRFU President.

Chantal du Pisani, the head of Legal and Compliance at SARU; sent Marais a letter informing him of the hearing.

The attorneys, Harold Gie, have given SARU, Jooste and Jones till Tuesday or they will launch an urgent court application to halt the process.

@king365ed
@rugby365com

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