Is Zelt nomination really the reason for AGM postponement?

UPDATE: The South African Rugby Union has changed its mind over the decision to end the ‘administration’ the Western Province Rugby Football Union.

In a letter, issued by administrator Peter Jooste on Thursday, SARU announced that the Annual General Meeting – scheduled for November 25 – has been postponed indefinitely.

The reason for the postponement was rather vague.

“WPRFU has not met certain of the conditions set by SARU for the removal of WPRFU from being under administration,” Jooste’s letter to the clubs read.

The AGM was scheduled to select the new executive of the WPRFU.

Jooste did not respond to @rugby365com‘s request for more details.

The announcement was met with ‘disappointment’ by some of the nominees for President.

However, they declined to comment, as the letter had also caught them by surprise.

@rugby365com reported last week that there were three candidates for the vacant position of WPRFU President – Kevin Kiewitz, Ronald Bantom and Ruben MacHelm.

However, Jooste’s letter sparked reports that there was in fact a fourth – Zelt Marais.

Marais, slapped with a 10-year ban by SARU, has appealed the latest disciplinary action.

At the time of writing, he had not responded to @rugby365com‘s request for confirmation of his nomination.

Insiders in club circles believe there may be another more sinister reason behind the decision.

There is a school of thought that the ‘participation agreement’ that resurfaced in the last two weeks, may be linked to the about-turn.

Although SARU’s union representative Danny Jones sent a reminder out in April, no action was taken against non-compliant clubs until recently.

It was when the issue of eligibility to vote resurfaced in the last fortnight that clubs were reminded that they must be compliant – including the payment of ZAR3,000 affiliation fees.

None of these issues – including the affiliation fees – were raised when the administrator asked clubs to vote at a Special General Meeting on June 10.

The meeting, attended by 66 clubs, voted by show of hands to mandate Jooste to complete the sale of Newlands Stadium and other properties, negotiate a settlement with Dreamworld/ Flyt to have the mortgage bond cancelled upon transfer of the property(ies) to the buyer and approach SARU to take the WPRFU out of administration and stage an election to appoint the new executive.

That election was scheduled for next week, but clearly, SARU and/or the administrator got cold feet.

It may be that some clubs questioned why they were allowed to vote in June and not now in November.

At the June meeting the administrator revealed the dire financial status of WPRFU.

The union borrowed ZAR113-million from Dreamworld with ZAR1.2-million interest accruing per month (an additional ZAR43.2-million in interest), as well as a further ZAR33-million for development fees.

He further informed the meeting that Dreamworld/Flyt is also pursuing a damages claim.

It was further reported that SARU has been repaid ZAR4.8-million from the proceeds of the equity deal with Red Disa and Jooste mentioned that there is still a loan of approximately ZAR43-million owed to SARU – which was also underwritten with the equity deal.

@king365ed
@rugby365com

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