SARU boss keeps his job
Despite the dark cloud of fraud allegations hanging over his head, Jurie Roux has been re-appointed as the South African Rugby Union Chief Executive Officer.
The General Council of SARU on Wednesday unanimously approved the extension of the contract of Roux as the CEO of the organisation.
This follows a day Roux has formally been implicated in allegations of fraud at the University of Stellenbosch.
The SARU Council accepted the recommendation of the SARU Executive Council to a five-year extension of Roux's contract, which was scheduled to expire in September 2015.
Oregan Hoskins, the President of SARU, said that the Exco had applied its mind to allegations appearing in the media 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 Jurie 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."
Hoskins added that Roux has been an "outstanding" CEO of SARU and they are very happy to have extended his contract with the organisation.
"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 Community Cup; we have contracted women players for the first time and developed a 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."
Roux, 43, was first appointed in September 2010.
