Damning ruling against Jurie Roux in Maties Saga

SA Rugby chief executive Jurie Roux has been ordered to repay R37 million that an arbitrator has ruled to have been misappropriated during his tenure at the Stellenbosch University.

According to News24, an arbitrator found that Roux had breached the terms of his contract with Stellenbosch University by not acting in their best interests when he was in charge of the Maties rugby club.

Between 2002 and 2010 Roux was in charge of the club’s finances. He served as director and then senior director of financial planning and asset management at the university.

The money was alleged to have been used for funding aspects of the rugby department without appropriately being allocated, which Roux repeatedly refuted.

The arbitration into the matter eventually began at the end of 2019, with co-accused Christiaan de Beer also implicated in the matter.

On Wednesday, advocate Alasdair Sholto-Douglas SC set down his ruling, which found against both Roux and De Beer.

‘In allocating the university’s funds to the four cost centres (without authorisation or budgeting) constituted a breach of his employment contract, which gave rise to the university suffering damages in the amount alleged in the particulars of claim, namely R35 312 004.

‘I find also that he breached his contract of employment by incurring expenditure of R1 804 398 on behalf of the university in relation to the Western Province Rugby Institute when he was not authorised to do so and in circumstances where the university had not in fact incurred such an obligation,’ a statement read.

He also ordered that De Beer repay R2-million related to his involvement in misappropriating funds from the university.

SA Rugby noted the findings, stating: ‘We have referred the matter to our legal advisers for their advice on governance matters, as we have throughout this process.

‘We further note that the process allows for the parties to lodge an appeal, and we will make no further comment until the outcome of any such appeal is known.’