A number of disgruntled administrators yesterday accused the Namibia Rugby Union of numerous misdemeanours, including corruption, racism and financial mismanagement at a press conference at Unam’s rugby stadium.
The ‘Concerned Group’ included former NRU vice president Corrie Mensah, who last month resigned from the union along with three other board members, Elmo Kurz, David van Kradenburg and Marcelino Dentlinger.
On behalf of the group Christie Windvogel read a long statement in which he highlighted numerous transgressions, including allegations of financial mismanagement by the CEO of the NRU Sybrand de Beer.
According to the statement, De Beer misused the NRU’s air miles rewards programme for personal purposes by booking flights for his wife on two occasions, and also booking flights for himself ‘without a valid business reason.’
The group said that the potential loss to the NRU in these instances amounted to N$10 203 or 58 290 reward miles, which could have rather been used for official NRU travel or excess baggage.
The group accused the NRU of gross financial mismanagement, saying that the union was financially insolvent.
It said the NRU had ended the 2013 financial year with a surplus on its income statement and with sufficient funding to start the new financial year on a sound financial basis. A year later however, the group claims that the NRU was commercially insolvent and that the it owed its creditors and Bank Windhoek an estimated N$3,5 million.
It said the NRU had approached the government for financial support in its preparations for the Rugby World Cup and that the government had already committed N$18 million, but questioned if they knew what that money would be used for.
“One should inquire from government if they know that the first instalment will be used as bailout capital to fend off insolvency,” the statement said, adding that it should ask the government if it was satisfied that only one black player played in last Saturday’s test against Russia.
The group accused the NRU of unlawfully dismissing a former black personal assistant of the CEO, and giving her job to the wife of De Beer’s friend. It added that a board member had made a ‘strange remark’ to the black woman, questioning her ‘suitability as the face of the NRU.’
It accused the NRU of disregarding the Namibian Labour Act and appointing foreigners in place of Namibians. It said the NRU appointed a foreign head coach and backline coach at a cost of thousands of dollars while the former local coaches Danie Vermeulen and Walter Donn received only N$10 000 and N$5 000 per month, respectively.
“Why do we have only five to six Namibians as part of the at least 17-member World Cup management team,” the group asked.
It recalled incidents of racism and sexual misconduct on previous national tours where no action was taken as well as alleged financial irregularities relating to trips by players, coaches and family members to and from Windhoek.
Mensah also addressed the press conference, saying that a debriefing report that he had submitted after the 2014 November European tour was not accepted by the NRU as an official report and that it had since disappeared from the union’s office.
According to the statement, the NRU board ignored about eight written complaints by black players on issues of discrimination, racism and victimisation, while it was unwilling to pursue the allegations further.
The president of the NRU Bradley Basson was present at the meeting and responded to some of the allegations.
He said they had received allegations of racism following the November European tour but were hesitant to pursue these because they would be open to legal action if the allegations could not be substantiated. He said the NRU decided to compile a questionnaire to the whole group, which had been concluded and they were now busy with a formal investigation.
Basson said the NRU took transformation seriously and sent Mensah and Van Kradenburg on a trip to the South African Rugby Union to see what they had done regarding transformation and what steps could be implemented in Namibia.
With regard to the fact that the NRU had appointed a South African sport psychologist Henning Gericke instead of a Namibian, Christina Swart-Opperman, as recommended by members of the concerned group, Basson said that Gericke had played a leading role in making Western Province Stormers the most transformed team in South African rugby, and he had worked with the Namibian players and built a new team culture.
Basson said allegations of misconduct against De Beer were being investigated and because of the seriousness of the allegations meetings were being held ‘in camera.’
Regarding team selection and the lack of transformation in the national side, Basson said the NRU had actually intervened before the European tour in November.
“It is not the board’s prerogative to interfere in team selections, but we actually did intervene when we insisted that Russel van Wyk be included in the European tour last year,” he said.
Regarding the appointments of Davies and Rossouw, Basson said that they had been recommended to Namibia by World Rugby, which was also contributing to their salaries in terms of a high performance grant.
Basson also tried to answer other allegations but at this stage the concerned group became agitated and asked Basson to leave the meeting, which he did.
