No confidence vote on WP rugby chief, Zelt Marais, fails to go ahead as planned

A VOTE of no confidence against Western Province Rugby Football Union president Zelt Marais, which was set to take place on Monday, did not go ahead as planned.

Marais was set to face the vote after months of legal and financial quandaries, the latest one involving his appointment of a ‘strategic committee’ and the setting up of a ‘war room’ without the input of the union’s constituents.

During the WPRFU’s general council meeting last month, Marais came under fire for disobeying and acting in direct conflict with the instructions of the joint WPRFU and SA Rugby advisory committee.

At the weekend, Western Province Professional Rugby (WPPR) chairperson Ebrahim Rasool sent out a scathing press release in which he addressed key issues that had been circulating. In the release, Rasool accused Marais of “megalomania” and having “centralised all power in his person – as president of WPRFU, board member of WPPR, acting CEO of WPRFU, head of the finance committee and now leader of a War Room”.

On Monday evening, Marais reportedly refused to leave the meeting and demanded that clubs show him the minutes of the meeting where they had decided to hold a vote of no confidence.

Speaking during a radio interview yesterday, Marais said: “It is a bit disappointing that sensitive matters that get discussed in the boardroom get out there. In terms of me having centralised power, it is so far from the truth. We had the meeting yesterday (Monday) and, without going into too much detail, there is always sensation and a very skew picture was painted.

“From a purely government point of view, it was communicated to the clubs that they had to have legally constituted meetings because it dealt with a serious matter.

“Up to the eve of the meeting, none of the clubs could demonstrate

that they actually had legally constituted meetings for us to proceed with the meeting (vote of no confidence).

“It would be very wrong for an international organisation like Western Province rugby to condone these things knowing that there is no proof or evidence of clubs having legally constituted meetings in order to table such a very important meeting.”

A source, however, claimed that Marais’ statement on the reasons for the meeting descending into chaos was false.