Clubs irate over unpaid prize

Uitenhage’s Progress owed R60,000 for winning final of Super 14 rugby competition

Clubs who participated in this year’s EC Rugby Super 14 competition are crying foul over unpaid prize monies, two months after the tournament concluded.

The preseason tournament, which attracts a large number of spectators, was concluded on March 14 as Uitenhage’s Progress out-muscled

Mdantsane’s Swallows 24-28 in the final at BCM stadium in East London.

Representatives of participating teams, including champions Progress, are unhappy with tournament organisers as the prize money owed to them has not reached their coffers.

Progress as overall winners are owed R60,000 and runnersup, Swallows, are owed R40,000.

Progress technical secretary Rodney Joseph said tournament organiser Phumelele Hlathi notified clubs on Thursday last week that they would get their monies after the lockdown regulations have ended.

“I do not understand. If he had a laptop he would have used electronic transactions to transfer the money into our accounts,” Joseph said.

“Even last year, the same thing happened. EL Police Rugby club had to write a long letter for their payments to be processed,” he said.

Swallows chair Zuko Matyeshana also confirmed they had not received payments.

“It really doesn’t make sense. We played the final in early March, but still no payment.

“What I understand is that the money rollout for prize money was given to them by the government before the final,” Matyeshana said.

Speaking to The Herald’s sister paper, the Daily Dispatch, Hlathi confirmed that none of the teams had received payments due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak which had “made it difficult to process payments”.

“I notified all the teams that our offices in East London are closed and we cannot carry on with payments.

“We will send them their money once the regulations have been eased. It is out of my reach at the moment,” Hlathi said.

Hlathi said the travel restrictions had prohibited him to travel from his home in Komani to East London.

“We can’t move. We are hoping by the end of this month we could be able to open, maybe we can manoeuvre something in order to get all the money sent,” he said.

“I have been in contact with all club bosses and they know this. If there was an issue, they could have picked up the phone and asked me,” Hlati said.

A similar scenario happened last year when then champions EL Police were at loggerheads with tournament organisers and the department of sport and recreation, which is the main funder, due to unpaid prize money.

SA has been on lockdown since March 27.

A new staged set of regulation has been government’s latest approach in a bid to reopen the economy.

However, it is unclear when the lockdown will end.