[imagesource:here]

In what many are claiming is a nepotism scandal, a company run by the son of SA Rugby’s chief executive has been appointed to organise the Springboks’ highly anticipated mid-year Tests against Ireland in July.

In other words, SA Rugby CEO Rian Oberholzer’s son Lourens, the CEO of the company Access Management Services (AMS), has been appointed to handle the Springboks v Ireland Tests. Some are claiming that this dynamic is a deliberate move to guarantee in-family financial benefits.

AMS has been appointed for the Tests at Lotus Versfeld in Pretoria on July 6 and Kings Park in Durban on July 13 without a tender process being followed.

“This is nepotism at its worst,” an anonymous rugby boss at one local union told Afrikaans newspaper Rapport. “It’s a major conflict of interests,” said another one.

Oberholzer (who’s pictured in the header image) and former SA Rugby managing director Songezo Nayo established ASM in 2009, which is when Oberholzer was AMS’ managing director and Nayo the chairperson. At the time, the company initially focused specifically on the management of the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium in Gqeberha.

Since then, AMS has grown its operations, overseeing events such as the 2021 British and Irish Lions’ tour of South Africa, the South African Rugby Union’s (SARU) bid for the 2023 Rugby World Cup, and Test matches during the 2017 and 2018 Rugby Championship.

The family ties are strong in the company. Oberholzer’s son Lourens was appointed as AMS’ chief operating officer in 2017 and then became the chief executive in 2022, while Oberholzer’s daughter Adriana took up the position as the company’s strategy and growth manager in 2023 and Lourens’ wife Anika serves as its operations manager.

Oberholzer senior was still serving as the administrator of the beleaguered WP Rugby Union in 2022 but moved to SA Rugby in 2023 to replace Jurie Roux as the organisation’s chief executive. Oberholzer previously held the position between 1996 and 2003 and was reappointed last year until at least the end of 2025.

SA Rugby has insisted that they made the appointment with AMS following a World Rugby recommendation and based on a “conflict management framework”, per Planet Rugby:

“[The framework] is designed to avoid potential conflicts and specifically includes independent committees, while excluding the CEO [Oberholzer],” said the governing body in a statement.

Design and practice don’t seem to be separate things in this world.

When Rapport confronted Oberholzer about the accusation of nepotism against him, he was impatient, saying there was “nothing sinister” about the appointment of AMS for the Boks‘ Test series against Ireland.

“I didn’t appoint AMS [to work for SARU]. The company was a service provider to SARU before my appointment [as CEO],” said the experienced administrator.

“I have nothing more to do with the company – I’m not a shareholder and I don’t benefit financially from it. It wouldn’t be right or ethical to remain involved.

“I know where the complaints come from and I know they have their own agendas.”

Lourens referred all enquiries about AMS to SARU, with a spokesperson telling Rapport that AMS was involved in the organisation of the Springboks’ Tests with Ireland because it will take place during a very busy period for the governing body when it simply would not have enough employees to handle everything it was offering in 2024.

“AMS was appointed because of its experience and expertise in event delivery and to fill an immediate, short-term need,” he said.

The spokesperson said that SARU is responsible for delivering six Test matches and three World Rugby events in 2024 (the World Rugby U20 Championship, WXV and Cape Town Sevens), as well as domestic competitions such as the Carling Currie Cup and Youth Weeks, with an operations department of just two people.

“There are seven Youth Weeks scheduled for the end of June to early July and the U20 World Cup is also taking place then. SARU’s going to arrange all this, but needs feet on the ground in the Ireland series.”

The spokesperson confirmed that no tender process was followed in AMS’ appointment, stating that World Rugby was impressed with AMS’ work during the WXV series in October 2022 and recommended the company be used again this year.

Well, then…

[source:planetrugby]