Price to pay for terrific Griquas season as staff cuts are mooted

The Griquas’ successful season appears to have come at a cost, with the Kimberley-based franchise apparently in the throes of retrenching staff as they go into the Christmas break.

Coached by Brent Janse van Rensburg, who has since departed for the Sharks and been replaced by his assistant, Scott Mathie, the union earlier this year won the R500 000 SuperSport Rugby Challenge on their third attempt, before embarking on a magical Currie Cup Premier Division run, which ended with a defeat to the Lions in the semifinals.

But those gains seem to have come with their own losses financially, and now there is talk of retrenchment packages being offered to administrative employees including ground staff, cleaning staff and development officers, and other measures, such as cutting subsidised DStv.

When contacted for comment yesterday, Griquas president Jannie Louw wouldn’t be drawn on whether it was true that they were retrenching, except to tersely say in Afrikaans: “I’ll only be able to talk to you after Tuesday because the process hasn’t begun yet.”

Quite how the Griquas have managed to find themselves in this situation – which a source familiar with their financial workings said could be as dire as needing R20 million to stay afloat – is mystifying given the year they’ve just had.

The source speculated that they had “overextended themselves in contracting ... and were living above their means” in their attempts to give Janse van Rensburg all the support he needed to turn the side into a champion team.

The official claimed that three players from the Griquas squad were earning R1 million or more, which makes no sense for a provincial union that size.

A union employee disputed that figure, saying the highest-earning player in the squad was on a salary of R60 000 a month. Our source countered that statement by saying that the figure did not include fringe benefits such as R15 000 housing allowances, among other perks.

Looking at the wider Griquas structures, our source said the fact that they had two chief executive officers in the highly rated Arni van Rooyen and Riaan Vorster for the commercial and amateur arms, respectively, was another baffling call by the union.

To put it into perspective, SA Rugby is a billion-rand company and it only has one chief executive – Jurie Roux.

It makes absolutely no sense for a team the size of Griquas to have more than one chief executive officer.

The staffer hinted that the decision had been a compromise deal of sorts, where the Griquas executive wouldn’t make the tough call of choosing a chief executive and sidestepped the problem by shifting Vorster to the amateur arm.

Our source did hint that, thanks to them punching above their weight, the Griquas could well be in line to secure new investors.

But, as things stand, it appears their staff have a lot to be nervous about as the festive break approaches.

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