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Jurie Roux is no longer in charge of the process at the SA Rugby Union (Saru) of appointing a successor for Heyneke Meyer.
Rapport, the sister newspaper of City Press, has learnt that Saru president Oregan Hoskins intervened and Saru’s high-performance committee – consisting of Kevin de Klerk (president of the Lions), James Stofberg (Saru vice president), Francois Davids (former president of the Boland Rugby Union) and Pat Kuhn (former Stormers chairperson) – will now have to continue the search on their own.
A source says Hoskins realised it was in the national interest to intervene. He and his executive committee were to have a meeting with Roux on Friday in Cape Town about, among other things, his future as the CEO of Saru.
Roux should have received instructions from Saru’s general council in December to lead the process of appointing a new Bok coach and the council (which among others consists of the presidents and CEOs of the 14 unions) would have ratified the appointment at its next meeting at the end of March.
“The timing of the official appointment of the next Bok coach now depends on the recommendation of the high-performance committee,” said a second source.
Roux’s initial task was to submit the names of suitable candidates to the committee, which would then have made its final recommendation to the general council.
Allister Coetzee and Rassie Erasmus were the only names under discussion and it is uncertain whether the high-performance committee will now cast a wider net.
Rapport confirmed that up to earlier this week, Saru had made contact with Coetzee once since December – by SMS. In the message, he was only asked whether he was available. There was then no further official communication between the parties.
This increases the likelihood that Erasmus could be appointed the interim coach for at least the three tests against Ireland. The first test is on June 11 in Cape Town.
Roux is fighting to keep his Saru job after major allegations of financial mismanagement were levelled against him. Revealed by Netwerk24 and contained in a report by auditing firm KPMG, the allegations are that Roux tried to hide the fact that he had used about R32 million of Stellenbosch University money to finance the Maties rugby club.
Frikkie Erasmus, Roux’s legal representative, yesterday said the announcement of a “forensic report” was a “total surprise”. He said the allegations were untested and it was interesting that an “anonymous person” was now suddenly involved with providing the report. He said his client was “anxious” to get the case to court but Stellenbosch University was delaying the process by not coming forward with documents his client had requested a long time ago.
Erasmus said neither Roux nor Chris de Beer, his colleague who is accused of the same mismanagement and is also Erasmus’ client, would address the media on the issue. “There is a lot of pressure on Roux,” said Erasmus.
