'Treasonous acts' within WP Rugby
NEWS: Western Province Rugby Football Union President Zelt Marais has labelled the behaviour of some of Union's officials as "disgraceful" in a lengthy statement released on Sunday.
There have been a number of reports on the future and the financial state of the Union in recent weeks and Marais has expressed his disappointment at members trying to "influence outcomes in the boardroom" by way of feeding information to the media.
The most recent report on WP Rugby's future revealed that MVM Holdings, headed by leading South African lawyer Marco Masotti, submitted a proposal to the WPRFU earlier this month to buy a 51 percent stake in the Stormers for US$6-million (about ZAR99-million).
READ: WPRFU boss responds to 'takeover bid'
Marais confirmed that "WP Rugby signed an exclusivity agreement with MVM Holdings (USA), LLC" allowing the Union to "negotiate in a confidential manner about an equity offer made to the Union in respect of the WP Professional Rugby Company".
"I want to express my extreme disappointment and report to you that officials you elected and/or appointed to the leadership structures of WP Rugby chose to serve the organisation through the media," Marais said in the statement.
"The rules of engagement between colleagues at these forums had always been robust, respectful and honest. On numerous occasions senior members were requested to denounce these unsavoury behavioural traits and pledge their loyalty to the Union [either as an elected executive member or a director appointed to represent the shareholder that elected him to such a trusting position or as an appointed independent director serving WP Rugby).
"The majority of our members serving the Union at these levels find the behaviour of members that make themselves guilty of such treasonous acts as disgraceful and unbecoming of a leader, and I again call on any person serving WP Rugby in this manner to rather vacate your position with honour or to immediately stop this need you have to misuse your position of trust to feed the media information that is mostly quoted out of context or leaked with the sole purpose of influencing outcomes in the boardroom."
Meanwhile, Marais also confirmed that the Union is in the process of transforming "the make-up of our group of independent directors on the board to become more inclusive from a demographic perspective".
Marais added: "This is an ideal that we as WP Rugby remain committed to as our contribution to achieve the targeted transformation goals of government as advanced through the Minister of Sport and SA Rugby."