WPRFU gear for crucial 'feedback' meeting
NEWLANDS UPDATE: Clubs and constituents looking for ‘urgent’ answers as to the status of the Western Province Rugby Football Union will get their chance to interrogate administrator Rian Oberholzer.
Oberholzer, who was put in charge when the South African Rugby Union placed the WPRFU under administration in October last year, will host a council meeting at Newlands on Tuesday, August 2.
The meeting follows less than a week after it was confirmed that controversial former WPRFU President Zelt Marais was slapped with another 12-month ban.
It also follows in the wake of attempts by at least one club to put the past of the administrator, Oberholzer, in the spotlight.
Tuesday’s meeting will have two key issues on the agenda – an update on the status of the WPRFU and the professional arm, Western Province Professional Rugby.
Oberholzer’s mandate, from the outset, was to deal with four specific matters:
* The property transactions of WPRFU
* The move to the Cape Town Stadium
* Finding an equity partner
* The finances and administration of the WPRFU and WPPR
These are set to be addressed at Tuesday’s meeting.
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In February this year, the Newlands Rugby Stadium was placed on the market in a sealed bidding process.
That process is nearing its conclusion and Oberholzer is certain to be grilled by the genuinely concerned clubs and the ever-dwindling Zelt Marais faction in the union.
Recommendations were to be made by the financial committee of SARU and will then be tabled to the WPRFU council.
Questions around the transparency of the process – and in particular the appointment of Galetti to facilitate the process – are likely to be tabled again, as they were during a previous council meeting, in May this year.
The process allowed parties to submit several bids offering different structures, in line with a set of guidelines issued by the seller.
The deadline for submission of non-binding offers was April 15, with the deadline for submission of final binding offers on May 31.
The administrator, Oberholzer, back in May also said there were seven equity deals for WPPR on the table.
Those were to be evaluated by the independent broker and will be brought to the council for approval.
He is likely to give an update on this as well.
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