SA Rugby President spits dummy out in Parliament

SA Rugby Super 14 Franchise Participation Agreement 1 January 2006 – 31 May 2010What a day it has been today. A real eye opener on the professionalism of the Danny Jordaan LOC FIFA unit, compared to the amateur hour of SA Rugby’s Mickey Mouse unit headed up by Hoskins.

All of this took place in Cape Town, with the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee of Sport who received presentations today from the Local Organising Committee of FIFA at 10H00, and then SA Rugby’s motley crew at 15H00. I was an observer to both.

Danny Jordaan arrived on time at 09H30, flanked by Tim Modise, three elegant ladies dressed in black, his head of security, also in black with FIFA logo on the breast pocket and an assistant, who quickly set up projector and laptops, and proceeded with a snapshot overview of the status of the building of the five stadiums in SA in preparation for the Confederation Cup, starting in March next year, as a prelude to and global promotion of, South Africa hosting the 2010 World Cup.

Each of his team did a slick coherent Powerpoint presentation with slides and facts and figures, addressing construction, timing and budget issues. Some ahead and some behind, but it instilled confidence.

Jordaan was polite, responsive and most agreeable to challenges and questions from the Members of Parliament, promising to respond with data and information and get back to them in the next few days with this. He wrapped his presentation up with a screening of a humorous TV ad, poking fun at a South African complaining about crime while in a queue at Cape Town airport, who is put in his place by an Aussie.

Next up at 15H00 was SA Rugby to update the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee of Sport on progress of transformation, the Eastern Cape Super 14 rugby franchise, and the SuperSport television deal. They arrived promptly at 14H30, with Hoskins accompanied by SA Rugby Chairman Mpumelelo Tshume, nattily dressed for the links in an open neck shirt, Rautie Rautenbach, VP of SA Rugby, consultant Mveleli Ncula, consultant Prof Willie Basson, transformation charter author of note and Andy Colquhoun, new SA Rugby Strategic Communications Specialist.

Hoskins’ presentation commenced with a defensive tirade on the Spears that became incoherent and incomprehensible, so much so he was asked to stop making personal attacks and get on to the issue of the agenda. So then he was diverted to declaring that their project manager in the Eastern Cape costs them a R1m per annum and that they just spent R500K in the last two weeks to field a scratch pick up Eastern Cape side to play WP in East London and the Lions in PE, neither of which was attended by any of the delegates or for that matter, anyone at SA Rugby.

This is in spite of Hoskins declaring that he spends 80% of his time in the Eastern Cape. It probably was just that pesky other 20% that precluded him from attending this most expensive window dressing at R2.5m for two games, and some poor chap to drive up and down the Eastern Cape corridor.

Two of the Members of Parliament were having none of this bait and switch tactic and berated Hoskins and Tshume, in some colourful language, for always moving the goal posts and forever saying “another two years and then you will be ready”, and for tainting the appointment of Peter de Villiers, with his disparaging statement.

These two MP’s climbed into Hoskins and Tshume, saying that Hoskins and Tshume will not even be around in two years, and that they are devastating rugby in the Eastern Cape area. You almost have to agree with them, as the chaos and mayhem in the Eastern Cape is being perpetuated by Hoskins and his MD, as directors of the three unions, on account of SA Rugby now holding 50% shareholding of EP rugby, Border and SWD, and they have failed in their fiduciary duties as well as dismally failed to come up with any initiative to resurrect rugby financially in the Eastern Cape.

There is only one way, and that is by including a Super 14 franchise into the area, the way it was always intended. It is an appalling indictment on the incompetence of SA Rugby under Hoskins, for failing to include the Eastern Cape in the Super 14 competition, three years after having signed agreements to do so. Hoskins, as past Sharks President, was privvy to all these agreements and discussions at Presidents Council level, so this is not a surprise.

These Super 14 franchises are the wells from which the unions derive their revenue through sponsorship. The Eastern Cape has been without a Super 14 rugby franchise for years and is suffering financially because of SA Rugby’s exclusionary acts and abuse of dominance.

But I digress. No laptop presentations, no preparation of Powerpoint presentations with images of each of the rugby areas they were discussing. Nada.

So they then asked Prof Willie Basson to talk through the status of transformation and the short facts are that 53% of rugby players in South Africa at junior school are black, 44% of rugby players at senior school are black, yet at Super 14 level there is less than 10% participation of blacks. Without boggling the mind too much with stats and doing racial profiling, the point is that the Eastern Cape area, where the bulk of black rugby is played, has no representation in Super 14 rugby and as a consequence these players from school drop out of the system.

I have stood on the sidelines in PE watching barefoot young boys hurtling down the touchline, slamming into tackles that would bring a tear to the eye of many a diehard boep-pens Blue Bull supporter.

People, we are talking about rugby here and we should be able to let those that want to play, play. Somehow or other Hoskins gets sidetracked in this presentation, careens off to some bizarre thought process, otherwise known as a wild conspiracy theory, accusing Mike Stofile for courting the Third Force by offering Johan Rupert the Chairmanship of SA Rugby and Schalk Burger Snr a seat on the Presidents Council if they backed Stofile.

Then came counter accusations that Hoskins was either on some strong medication that he was hallucinating with all these conspiracy theories, or he was just plain psycho paranoid and due for admission in Valkenberg for observation.

One thing led to another with some brisk exchanges and then when Hoskins realised he had spat his dummy out, he begged for forgiveness, saying that he “was speaking from the heart” and rambled on about his “bona fides” et al, leading all to think, “What the…………? Has the man lost his mind?” At one stage he referred to himself as President of South Africa, so deep does the delusion of grandeur run.

A raw nerve has been touched and all is not well at SA Rugby. In fact, I would be nervous to be driven to the corner store by Hoskins, let alone let him lead SA Rugby out of the quagmire, to greatness.

Regardless, it is my mission to let those that want to play, play.
And this might well be the start of an introspective series looking into the mental instability of those charged with being the custodians of SA Rugby and our game that we love so much.

So many questions!