SA Rugby have confirmed that Jurie Roux has stepped down from his position as CEO after 12 years in the role.
The body announced that a process to appoint a successor would be advised in due course while an acting CEO will be confirmed before the end of the month.
“I have never doubted Jurie’s commitment to SA Rugby and this decision was not an easy one for anyone who has worked closely with Jurie for more than a decade – both here and overseas,” said Mark Alexander, President of SA Rugby.
Roux was appointed CEO in 2010 and is the longest-serving CEO of a major World Rugby federation.
“Jurie was a key driver along with the President and the Executive Council in the development of SA Rugby’s Strategic Transformation Plan 2030 – which is already paying handsome dividends on and off the field – and a key contributor to South African rugby’s journey to a private equity partnership,” said Alexander.
He said that Roux was at the helm of the organisation when it was hit by outside forces that set in motion two of the worst periods in the history of rugby in South Africa since democracy.
HAVE YOU ALSO READ?: SA Rugby CEO Jurie Roux Loses Appeal
“The first was in 2016 – when the sports ministry acted against several sports, including rugby, over the perceived pace of transformation,” said Alexander. “We were barred from bidding for international events, sponsors turned their backs on us, and the challenges were compounded by poor on-field performances. A new direction was crafted to transform the organisation back to winning ways, which was crowned when the Springboks became world champions in 2019 and our subsequent victory in the series against the British & Irish Lions. The second challenging period was the Covid-19 pandemic. Our revenues were hard hit due to our non-participation in international competitions. Jurie together with key industry role players, drove through an industry-wide mitigation plan was implemented that went a long way towards saving the game from collapsing.”
Roux, though, has faced controversy in the past few years, with allegations of misconduct and financial mismanagement.
In 2013, when he was at the head of the Stellenbosch Rugby Club, the audit firm KPMG submitted a preliminary report to the university which found that Roux had manipulated the finance system to channel millions of unbudgeted expenditure into the rugby club.
He held the position of senior director in the university’s finance department when he was appointed CEO of SARU in 2013.
In December 2020, Roux was ordered to repay more than R37 million, which an arbitrator found he had misappropriated from Stellenbosch University between 2002 and 2010. In 2021 he lost his appeal against that ruling.
There have been reports that Sharks CEO Eduard Coetzee and Bulls counterpart Edgar Rathbone are being considered for the position of SA Rugby CEO.