The South African Rugby Union (SARU) on Friday moved to distance themselves from the appointment of current CEO Jurie Roux in 2010.

In a press release, SARU refuted claims it was aware of Roux’s employment at Stellenbosch University at the time of his appointment.

Roux remains at the centre of a multi-million rand investigation into alleged mismanagement of funds during his tenure as chairperson of Maties Rugby Club, the role he left in order to join SARU.
On Thursday the Democratic Alliance called for the suspension of Roux.

President of SARU Oregan Hoskins outlined in the release that the appointment of the SARU CEO in 2010 was handled entirely by an external, independent recruitment company.

According to the release, this recruitment company received all applications; prepared a shortlist; interviewed candidates and made a recommendation to the General Council of SA Rugby.

Their recommendation of the consultants was accepted by the SARU General Council.

None of the candidates were interviewed or had any other type of engagement with SA Rugby officials before the appointment.

The release concluded that the recommendation in regard to Roux did not include any suggestion of an inquiry into his employment at Stellenbosch.

At the time of publication of this article, SARU had not named the recruitment company used.

According to a SARU spokesperson, Hoskins met Roux for the first time on his first day in the job.

SARU also confirmed to Sport24 on Thursday that the reason for using the recruitment company was to ensure that they could not be accused of showing any favouritism in their appointment after numerous union CEOs had declared an interest in the job.SPORTS24