SA Rugby boss accused of nepotism over organisation of Springboks v Ireland Tests
Provincial rugby unions in South Africa are reportedly seething after it was revealed that a company run by the son of SA Rugby chief executive Rian Oberholzer has been appointed to organise the Springboks’ highly anticipated mid-year Tests against Ireland in July.
Adding to that, the company Access Management Services (AMS), was 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.
Appointment made after World Rugby recommendation
However, SA Rugby insists that they made the appointment following a World Rugby recommendation and based on a “conflict management framework”.
“[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.
In 2009, Oberholzer and Songezo Nayo, a former managing director of SA Rugby, founded ASM. At the time, Oberholzer served as AMS’s managing director, Nayo as its chairperson, and the company’s primary focus was on administering Gqeberha’s Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.
Since then, AMS’s operations have grown, and it has coordinated events such as the South African Rugby Union’s (SARU) 2023 Rugby World Cup bid, the British and Irish Lions’ trip in 2021, and Test matches at the 2017 and 2018 Rugby Championships.
In 2017, Oberholzer’s son Lourens was named chief operating officer of AMS; in 2023, his daughter Adriana assumed the role of strategy and growth manager, and in 2024, Lourens’ wife Anika became operations manager.
Lourens was appointed chief executive of AMS in 2022. Oberholzer senior was still the administrator of the struggling WP Rugby Union at the time, but he transferred to SA Rugby in 2023 to take Jurie Roux’s place as the organization’s CEO.
Oberholzer was reappointed to the post last year, with a new term ending at least in 2025. He had previously held it from 1996 to 2003.
When Rapport approached the seasoned administrator about the alleged nepotism against him, he became agitated and stated that there was “nothing sinister” about AMS’s appointment for the Boks’ Test series against Ireland.
“AMS wasn’t appointed by me to work for SARU. Before I was appointed [as CEO], the company provided services to SARU,” he stated.
“I am not a shareholder in the company and receive no financial advantage from it, thus I have no further involvement with it. Staying involved would not be morally or ethically right.
“I am aware of the source of the complaints and that they are motivated by personal goals.”
Lourens forwarded all AMS-related inquiries to SARU in the interim.
According to a SARU official who talked with Rapport, AMS was involved in the planning of the Springboks’ Test match against Ireland because the governing body will be extremely busy during that time and won’t have enough staff to manage everything in 2024.
“AMS was chosen to address an urgent, short-term need and because of its experience and expertise in event delivery,” he stated.
Busy schedule for SARU
“SARU’s responsible for delivering six Test matches and three World Rugby events in 2024 (the World Rugby U20 championship, WXV, and Cape Town Sevens), in addition to local events like Youth Weeks and the Carling Currie Cup, all with a two-person operations staff.
The U20 World Cup is happening during the seven Youth Weeks that are planned for late June to early July. All of this will be organized by SARU, but they need hands on the ground in Ireland first.
The representative attested to the fact that AMS was appointed without going through a tender process.
“World Rugby was sufficiently impressed with AMS’s performance during the WXV series [for women’s teams] in October of last year to recommend that the company be used again this year,” the spokesperson stated.
