WP’s problems not individuals but an outdated system
The letter SA Rugby sent to the Western Province Rugby Football Union ordering that the organisation get its house in order or risk having its affairs taken over by the national body was a necessary step.
The concern felt by SA Rugby administrators at the mismanagement that has pushed WP to the brink of financial ruin has never been a secret. The possibility of them stepping in, as they have in the past at Border and Eastern Province, became a talking point in the middle of last year. They just needed an opportunity, and that opportunity arrived when SA Rugby received a letter from senior clubs asking them to intervene.
WP is an important union on the local rugby landscape because of the role the region plays as a breeding ground for Springboks. The questionable business deals that appear to have placed WP on the downward path towards financial ruin do have potential national ramifications.
World Cup-winning captain Siya Kolisi’s decision to leave WP for the Sharks during the short off-season attracted a more widespread public focus to WP’s problems, which are now coming to a head.
WP president Zelt Marais is the man usually linked to the overflow of negative publicity attracted by the union over the past two years. As it turns out, that might end on Monday night, as there has been speculation that a vote of no confidence in Marais will be passed at a meeting where Ronald Bantom is expected to be elected vicepresident.
Widely seen as Marais’s kingmaker, Bantom could find himself elevated to the top position, thus bringing Marais’s reign as president to a dramatic end. But while the many who have been left confounded by some of Marais’s decisions may be tempted to say “Amen to that”, such enthusiasm would be misplaced.
Marais is just the latest in a line of WP presidents who have made decisions that retarded the evolution of rugby in the region. WP’s ongoing problems are not rooted in the individual but in an outdated system.
It is important to note that if Marais is deposed on Monday night, it will not be because of the crazy deals first signed and then reneged on, or the big miss that ended up profiting the Sharks in the form of the failure to sign on the American consortium MVM Holdings as an equity partner.
No, if Marais loses his position it will be because he failed to push through promises he made during the electioneering phase. It is understood the drive to have former Blitzbok coach Paul Treu replace Gert Smal as director of
rugby and Junaid Moerat installed as CEO was a big part of the agenda of the group of smaller clubs that pushed for Marais’s election.
Marais’s management style did succeed in chasing Smal away, but he was unable to get Treu in as director because he encountered stiff opposition from within the player group. On that note, it was good to see what many of us knew at the time but were attacked for saying — that Kolisi was one of the main opponents of Treu’s potential appointment — was finally written last week.
Treu lost his case against former Stormers coach Robbie Fleck, but the apparent vendetta against him did end up costing Fleck his job. On that point, perhaps it should be noted that there’s been no noticeable improvement in the performances of the Stormers and WP since Fleck and Smal’s respective departures. If anything, the Cape team has regressed since their experience was lost to the management room.
The Fleck and Smal departures may have appeased Marais’s supporters, but the fact he was prevented from taking the next step has come back to bite him. Replacing Marais with a person who might bring greater determination to the quest to drive through the initial election promises is not a win for professional rugby.
And while there has been a move on the part of the professional arm to distance itself from the union, there will only be a win for professional rugby in the region once the elected officials, and by extension the clubs, have their influence on the decisionmaking process either eliminated or reduced.
WP has nearly 100 clubs who elect the president, and all of them have the same number of votes, regardless of whether you are Stellenbosch or one of the smallest clubs operating on a R250,000 budget. It is the smaller clubs that have been driving the agenda in recent times, but even if that wasn’t the case, amateur clubs having the power to influence decisions affecting professional rugby makes no sense.
It’s the system that brings the potential for the tail-waggingthe-dog situation that is at the heart of the WP problem, not Marais. Replacing the individual does little. It is a system that sees presidents elected and then made beholden to promises directed at gaining populous appeal that needs to be replaced.