The web of mismanagement that led to the liquidation of the EP Kings, the commercial arm of the Eastern Province Rugby Union (EPRU), will be revealed when high-profile rugby figures testify at a confidential hearing next month.
Liquidators are serving summonses on Jurie Roux, the chief executive of the South African Rugby Union (Saru), and EP Kings’s franchise head Cheeky Watson.
The high court in Port Elizabeth has granted an application for a liquidation hearing to be held at the city’s magistrate’s court.
Saru board member Monde Tabata, the administrator for the EP Kings, and the former head of the EPRU, Charl Crous, will also appear at the hearing.
“The interrogation process empowers liquidators to scrutinise the club and its partners regarding the business affairs of EP Rugby over the last couple of years,” one of the liquidators said this week.
Port Elizabeth attorney Craig Jessop, who is representing a group of 18 players at the hearing, said he hopes to recover “the outstanding salaries and [monies] promised to them for damages”.
In July and August last year, EP Kings failed to pay players’ salaries and debts totalling R18-million. At the beginning of this year, the EPRU players’ union, My Players, successfully applied for the provisional liquidation of the EP Kings.