Veda Manie, the General Manager of the South Western Districts Eagles, was elected as the first female chairperson of the South African Rugby Employers’ Organisation (SAREO) at its annual meeting in Cape Town on 7 December 2022.

She succeeds Edgar Rathbone, the CEO of the Blue Bulls (Pty) Ltd.

Manie steps up from the role of vice-chairperson of SAREO, a position to which she was elected in June this year. She has been involved in rugby administration for 12 years and joined SAREO in 2019 when she was appointed acting CEO of the South Western Districts Rugby Union. She has been a SAREO Executive committee member since 2020.

In other changes to the executive, Pieter Burger, the managing director of Ellis Park Stadium (Pty) Ltd, was elected as vice-chairperson while Danny Jones (Western Province) and Etienne de Lange (Valke) were elected to the executive to join incumbents Marius van Rensburg (Pumas), Eugene Fourie (Leopards) and Ian Schwartz (SARU).

SAREO is the representative organisation of the professional and amateur rugby employers in South Africa, managing relationships with the players’ union (MyPlayers – SARPA) and the non-playing employees (Sport Employees Unite (SEU)) representing employers’ interests to SA Rugby.