Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Drought halts rugby, baseball
THE water crisis in Cape Town has affected another sporting code following last week’s decision to cancel club and junior cricket.
On Thursday night, the Western Province Rugby Union – following a meeting with its more than 90-club constituency – took the unprecedented decision to postpone club rugby until June.
This was confirmed by WPRU deputy president Zelt Marais. The club rugby season normally starts in April.
The state of various fields around the Cape Peninsula and beyond paints a grim picture.
Marais said it was “something beyond our control”.
“We’ve seen the cricket, baseball and soccer being affected by the drought. But the clubs are all happy about the decision taken. They understand the thinking, we can’t change things,” he said.
“It’s unfortunate. We’ve been asked by the city to put a tentative date ation and has said that she is corrupt.
The party also accused her of maladministration.
“The DA is saying their Cape Town government is corrupt and there’s maladministration.
“They accuse me of corruption and everything that went wrong in this city,” said De Lille.
“I have a deputy mayor and ten mayoral committee members that I have delegated. Don’t paint me as if I have been personally responsible and liable for everything that has gone wrong in this city.
“I must now get blamed for everything that is wrong in a DA-led government.”
De Lille said there was a “haste to get rid of me” because “there are people waiting in the wings for this (mayoral) position”.
“I need to protect my integrity and my reputation that they are hell-bent on destroying. They want to paint me as a corrupt person. That is what the fight is all about for me,” she said.
“I can walk away now. But if I walk away they will say I have resigned because I am guilty. But I have not received a fair process.” forward and we’ve said June 1.
“Some of the fields are in a really bad state and I believe there were quite a few injuries at the Cape Town 10s at the weekend because of that, because it’s just so dry. So, it’s about being safety-first now.”
Meanwhile, Sean Campbell reports that the Baseball Association of Western Province informed members of the suspension of official and friendly fixtures with immediate effect earlier this year.
Leon Fester, vice-president, said the decision was purely based on preserving the condition of the fields, and assisting in pushing back “Day Zero”.
“Should we continue playing our fields, we will be worse off than it currently is and the city’s rehabilitation process would be further hampered and many more fields would require reseeding, which would need about three years to develop correctly.”
A task team has been established to investigate and to present to the city options for games to start again.