Windhoek
Bradley Basson was re-elected unopposed as president of the Namibia Rugby Union (NRU) during the union’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) held at the Safari Court Hotel in the capital on Saturday.
A well-known lawyer, Basson took over as NRU president in 2012, replacing Danie Strauss, who then headed an interim executive committee that was at the time in charge of the union’s affairs, following the resignation of the previous committee.
At Saturday’s meeting, a new executive committee was also elected and it is as follows: Bradley Basson (president), Petrie Theron (first vice president), Ivan Gaya (second vice president), Rendall Louw and Thomas Mbeeli (both regional representatives), Jacky Husselmann (referees), Hans Hashagen (finance), Corne Powell (players’ representative) and Advocate Louis Botes (legal advisor).
As of late yesterday, it was not clearly whether Elizma Theron remained as the acting chief executive officer (CEO) of the NRU, or whether the meeting resolved otherwise as far as the CEO position is concerned. Theron temporarily took over as CEO after the departure of Sybrand de Beer, who is now the union’s commercial agent.
According to one of the newly elected executive members – who asked that his name be withheld for fear of reprisals – not all the proceedings went as smoothly as planned during Saturday’s meeting, as some of the union’s council members stormed out of the meeting after a heated debate over important documents that were not availed by the executive members to the council.
“Despite being elected to our respective positions, everything did not go well as expected, as arguments again erupted during the presentations, which led to some of the council members walking out of the meeting. Most reports, such as the financial reports, were all availed to the council members to review, except the board members’ report, which outlines the performance of the members,” said the source.
“The report from the board is very important to the council members, because that’s how they determine how the board performed during the period under review and what were the challenges. But since the report was not availed to council members, arguments started and went on and on until some of the council members stormed out of the meeting.”
In conclusion, the member said he was not entirely sure if the “concerned” council members that walked out of Saturday’s meeting would recognise the new leadership or not. He did, however, inform New Era Sport that rumours are circulating that the group that walked out is considering taking unspecified action against the newly elected leadership.