Cape Town - A group of just over 50 picketers representing certain rugby clubs in the Western Province Rugby Football Union (WPRFU) demonstrated outside the Cape Town Stadium on Saturday against the continuing administration of the union by SA Rugby.
The protest was held hours ahead of the United Rugby Championship clash between the Stormers and Sharks which kicked off at 14:30.
The representatives claim there's absolutely no transparency from SA Rugby in terms of what is happening around the administration of the WPRFU and they are calling for an immediate end to it.
Some of posters on display also accused SA Rugby and outgoing administrator Rian Oberholzer of using Western Province as a ‘cash cow’.
SA Rugby recently said in a statement that they are looking forward to ending the administration, but after Oberholzer was appointed as interim CEO of SA Rugby, the body needs to appoint another administrator to deal with the affairs of the WPRFU.
This can delay the process even further.
Sedick Crombie, a spokesperson for the group, said the purpose of the picket was to ensure they highlight the lack of feedback the union is getting from the administrator and SA Rugby.
"We've had little or no feedback these last two years as to the deals that were put on the table," Crombie said.
The deals he was referring to include the sale/redevelopment of Newlands Rugby Stadium and finding a suitable equity partner for the professional arm of the WPRFU that includes the Stormers rugby team.
“If we start selling off assests without anything going back to the clubs, the bona fide owners, somebody is then benefitting from that. Somebody is using it as a cash cow,” Crombie said.
“The clubs are saying don’t use us as a cash cow. Don’t utilise our assets to benefit yourselves.
“If SA Rugby sells Newlands for R300 million, they will say this process of administration cost R150m, the company overseeing the will take a percentage of the sale. At the end of the day, what is left for the clubs?”
It also included the Stormers and Western Province Currie team's move to DHL Stadium which was concluded this week. WP Rugby is now the primary anchor tenant at the Greenpoint stadium.
"The clubs, who are the custodians of rugby and the rightful owners of the assets, have been locked out of those negotiations processes itself. We have no say in what needs to happen to those assets and we are the bona fide owners of them," Shakier Stuurman, another representative of clubs on the Cape Flats, said at the protest.
He was a former member of the Western Province finance committee. He also said that the clubs recognise the mistakes that were made, but they have been given no chance to try and rectify them.
"Currently Saru and the administrator are negotiating but they're not doing it on our behalf but on the professional arm. They are getting the maximum benefit from our assets, the assets of the clubs.
“We are not against the Stormers at all, that is what we want to get across to the people. They are probably our biggest asset that we have.
“In business, yes, mistakes are made, we've never said that we didn't make mistakes. But we need to be given an opportunity to rectify those mistakes.”
SA Rugby this past week said in a strongly worded open letter that the claims made by elements of the WPRFU club structures are erroneous, misleading and needlessly distracting.
“SA Rugby looks forward to ending Western Province's unfortunate period of administration in the coming months with a solution approved by its clubs.”