Bright future for EP Rugby ahead

GREATER autonomy over managing their own affairs should lead to a brighter future for the ailing Southern Kings.

SA Rugby’s decision to name a new board to manage the PRO14 team has been greeted with optimism by long-suffering rugby fans.

After SA Rugby stepped in to run the affairs of the union after the debilitating cash crisis, the union and the PRO14 team have effectively been handed back to local hands.

The board elected Andre Rademan its chairman, and businessman and sports official Mtobi Tyamzashe his deputy.

Other EP representatives on the board are deputy president Bantwini Matika and EPRU finance committee chairman Shaheed Patel.

Tyamzashe, Gugu Nxiweni and Mxolisi Nkula were elected independent directors and Southern Kings chief operating officer Charl Crous will also serve on the board.

There are certainly some high-powered names on the board who should help the union obtain much-needed sponsorship. Tyamzashe is executive chairman of Smart Grid Networks and also former chief operating officer of the SA Football Association, while Nxiweni is a chartered accountant and executive chairman of the Improvate Group of Companies.

Nkula is a PR councillor with the Buffalo City Municipality.

Because Rademan is chairman of the board and has a casting vote, EP now effectively have control of their own destiny.

It is worth noting the comment of Crous, who said the Kings had been operating in a bubble for far too long and that the new development was a step forward.

Rademan says the new board will waste no time in returning EP Rugby to its former glory.

It will be a tough task but EP’s president says his board is up to it.

In a display of confidence, Rademan declared that he had never been more optimistic about the future.

EP Rugby, it seems, is back on the way up.