Saru must not throw stones

2008-08-28 22:13

Liam Del Carme

Johannesburg - The possible dismissal of the chair and the managing director of SA Rugby and a R30m advance payment received from SuperSport will bring about differences of opinion at the organisation's president's council meeting on Friday.

Plans were made a while ago to get rid of Mpumelelo Tshume, the chairperson, and managing director Jonathan Stones. However, delegates to the meeting are divided about the manner in which it should be done.

SA Rugby indicated after a management meeting two weeks ago that discussions would be held with Tshume and Stones about their future. The unions have different opinions about how it should be done, however.

Dismissing Stones, a fulltime employee of SA Rugby, will have to be tackled with the greatest sensitivity.

"We can't support a motion to get rid of them," a senior official said. "We don't know what financial implications it will have. Stones could cause big trouble."

The advance of R30m that SA Rugby requested from SuperSport as part of the broadcast rights contract signed last year has not been distributed among the unions.

The smaller unions, some of them close to bankruptcy, are particularly eager to get their share.

But the bigger unions want to be sure about the stipulations to which the payouts will be subject to.

"What will it be? Is it a loan? An advance? It has tax implications, and we should know what we are letting ourselves in for"

"That R30m will be taxable and it is likely that only R21m will be available to be divided after tax."

The payouts are only one of the issues over which the bigger unions and the smaller ones will differ. Rugby's new management structure is another one.

- Beeld