SARU CEO, Jurie Roux

SARU’s General Council has unanimously approved the extension of the contract of Jurie Roux as the Chief Executive Officer of the organisation on Wednesday.

The council accepted the recommendation of the SARU Executive Council (Exco) to a five-year extension of Roux’s contract, which was scheduled to expire in September 2015.

“Jurie Roux has been an outstanding CEO of SARU and we are very happy to have extended his contract with the organisation,” said Oregan Hoskins, SARU President.

“SARU has made major progress since he was appointed in 2010 and we look forward to continuing to grow the game with Jurie as the operational head for the foreseeable future.”

Hoskins said that there had been a number of notable achievements since Roux had taken over as CEO.

“Jurie managed the process of re-engineering our two separate ‘amateur’ and ‘professional’ arms into one,” said Hoskins.

“We have established SARU Academies in four provinces to develop black talent and created an aspirational new club competition in the Cell C Community Cup; we have contracted women rugby players for the first time and developed a Coca-Cola School of Excellence programme to uplift black, traditional, rugby-playing schools.

“Our new High Performance department has done outstanding work in coaching support to our national teams and provinces and we have created our own rugby-playing intellectual property in analysis and athlete management systems.”

“Jurie managed the process of appointing Heyneke Meyer as national coach and our national team results have been on an upward curve at Springbok, Sevens and Under-20 level in recent times.

“A year ago we opened a world-class rugby museum, The Springbok Experience, to properly honour the heritage of the game in all our communities and there have been numerous upgrades to our operating procedures that go unseen by the public.”

Hoskins said that the Exco had applied its mind to allegations appearing in newspapers relating to activities at Stellenbosch University during the time of Roux’s employment there.

“We were made aware of certain allegations and we have interrogated them,” he said.

“We are satisfied with the explanations that Roux has given to us.”

“It is gratifying that, despite all the publicity, the 14 member unions of SARU voted unanimously to approve Jurie’s reappointment.”

Roux, 43, was first appointed in September 2010.

Meanwhile the Hawks spokesman, Paul Ramaloko confirmed on Tuesday there was an investigation into an alleged fraud at the University of Stellenbosch, relating to irregular use of its reserve funds.

“The matter is still under investigation and has been ongoing for months,” he said.

Ramaloko would not divulge the details or the probe nor confirm the names of those being investigated.

The University’s Audit and Risk Committee and auditors KPMG reported their suspicions and named SA Rugby Union (SARU) chief executive Jurie Roux in their findings.

Roux was the University’s senior director of finance and asset management at the time.

It was reported on Tuesday that SARU president Oregan Hoskins has reneged on a confidentiality agreement with the University and had shown Roux a forensic report, which implicated him in the alleged fraud.

Hoskins reportedly requested a transcript of the report for SARU to decide on steps against Roux and agreed, in writing, that he would not show the report to anyone else.

He told the newspaper his lawyers advised him to hand the report over to Roux’s legal counsel.

“I considered it as my legal duty to give Roux the opportunity to explain the allegations against him,” Hoskins reportedly said.

During its investigation, KPMG found “major financial irregularities” in transactions between the Matie Rugby Club and the University, which included practices where tuition and accommodation were financed illegally.