Rugby boss faces EP Kings hearing
The fate of the team has major implications for the national union and its Super Rugby commitments
The web of mismanagement that led to the liquidation of EP Kings, the commercial arm of the Eastern Province Rugby Union (EPRU), will be revealed when highprofile rugby figures testify at a confidential hearing next month.
Liquidators are serving summonses on Jurie Roux, the chief executive of the South African Rugby Union (Saru), and EP Kings’ franchise head Cheeky Watson.
The high court in Port Elizabeth has granted an application for a liquidation hearing to be held at the city’s magistrate’s court.
Saru board member Monde Tabata, EP Kings’ administrator, and former head of the EPRU Charl Crous will also appear at the hearing.
“The interrogation process empowers liquidators to scrutinise the club and its partners regarding the business affairs of EP Rugby over the last couple of years,” one of the liquidators said this week.
Attorney Craig Jessop, who is representing a group of 18 players at the hearing, said he hopes to recover “the outstanding salaries and [monies] promised to them for damages”.
In July and August last year, EP Kings failed to pay players’ salaries and debts totalling R18-million. At the beginning of this year, the EPRU players’ union, My Players, successfully applied for the provisional liquidation of EP Kings. The liquidation was finalised last month when Watson failed to secure a R200million sponsor as part of a business rescue plan.
Now liquidators will look into the franchise’s financial decline over the past three years — which has left it with slightly less than R70 000 in assets — under Watson’s stewardship. They will also examine what role Roux and others played in managing the franchise’s finances.
Watson’s woes have been compounded by the union’s lower league clubs passing yet another motion of no confidence in him.
Watson said: “[It seems] to have been resolved but it’s all in the hands of the administrator.”
It’s understood that Roux and Crous are among the top rugby bosses who will reveal how money was managed after EP Kings’ relegation from Super Rugby in 2014.
“We’re playing our cards close to our chest … The people who are subpoenaed all played a crucial role in the management of finances and the alleged mismanagement, so they have questions to answer,” said another source involved in the liquidation.
EP Kings’ fate will be decided at the hearing, which has significant implications for Saru. The national rugby union is committed to competing against New Zealand and Australia for a second season of Super 18 Rugby, which means Saru is obliged to field another South African team. That is meant to be the Southern Kings, the EPRU’s Super Rugby franchise. If Saru is unable to sort out EP Kings’ finances or find a sponsor, it will have to underwrite the Eastern Cape side, at a huge cost.
EP Kings are currently competing in the Currie Cup without an official sponsor and under the administration of Saru, which has kept it afloat since December. But, with a R20- million bail-out deal — which was approved by the former ANC metropolitan council — under threat, the team may have to drop out. Shortly after taking office, Nelson Mandela Bay metro mayor Athol Trollip initiated a review of the deal. EP Kings’ participation in the Currie Cup hinges on it.
Nelson Mandela Bay spokesperson Kupido Baron said: “A decision was made to [release a R6-million deposit] because it came from a previous council meeting. But the mayor said, ‘let the other payment be deferred’, until he is satisfied with the review.”
Known as the home of black rugby, the Eastern Cape has three teams: Eastern Province in Port Elizabeth, Border Bulldogs in East London and the Country District team, which operates in the province’s rural areas. Household dust. It’s the stuff you see floating along when a ray of sunlight slips through a curtain and shines a light on the inner workings of your household air. It’s everywhere, and the reason weekends are spent cleaning, instead of lying in a shocked heap after barely surviving the work week.
In times soon to be long gone, this dust was sucked up and brushed away because it made you sneeze. Or because guests gave slightly nervous looks when presented with a glass of wine that required a delicate wipe to remove all the dust. But now there are legitimate worries to be had about the dust, according to researchers in the United States.
That land of pathological fear of dirt — where the endless search is about turning that spray that kills 99.9% of germs into a kill-all application — has gone and linked household dust to a nice mix of toxic chemicals.
The research, Consumer Product Chemicals in Indoor Dust: a Qu a n t i t a t i v e Met a - a n a l y s i s o f US Studies, was published in Environmental Science & Technology.
Its team collated 26 peer-reviewed papers that were published since 1999, all looking at the chemicals that mix together in dust. These found 45 toxic chemicals in the dust that freely wanders around homes.
These chemicals can be linked to an increased risk of all sorts of health hazards, from fertility issues to increased risk of cancer.
Problematically, all these chemicals come from the things everyone has in their homes — 10 of them were found in 90% of all dust samples.
The worst of these were phthalates, which are used to make cosmetics, toys, vinyl flooring and all sorts of other consumer goods, and phenols, which are used in cleaning products and other everyday household items.
On their own, each of these comes in small enough doses that they aren’t harmful. But when mixed together in a dusty cocktail they are mighty. And bad. Especially for children, who spend their days crawling about, eating anything that falls on the floor and sticking their paws in their mouths.
“We think of our homes as a safe haven but unfortunately they are being polluted by toxic chemicals from all our products,” says coauthor Veena Singla.
All. Our. Products. So get cleaning … but steer clear of the long list of bad stuff.