RUSTENBURG HERALD - RUSTENBURG - Tension is mounting and frustration is rising over the Rustenburg Municipality, and in particular the Municipal Manager's lack of intervention since control of the Rustenburg Impala Rugby Club was taken over in what could only be described as an illegal occupation by a third party benefiting from a good measure of confusion, resulting from unauthorised interference or downright meddling by the RLM's Director of Community Development - Mr Linda Jele.
To make matters worse, Rustenburg Impala Rugby Club is losing tens if not hundreds of thousands of rands every month, since its main "sponsor" or for decades sole benefactor (Rustenburg Impala Mines), seems to have been discouraged from further investment or any form of financial support until the dispute as to the "ownership" or legitimate holder of the lease agreement between the Rugby Club and the RLM can be confirmed.
The confusion around the "ownership" of Rustenburg Impala Rugby Club arose from an incident of relative uncertainty during the onset of the dreaded Covid-19 pandemic when the club suddenly found itself in arrears of some R180 000 to the Rustenburg Municipality. At the time however, the problem was soon something of the past when a Samaritan who was interested in a gym at the club agreed to cover the deficit in return for an agreement to run the gym for his own account. Later on, the new operator of the gym sought permission to have the gym outsourced to a third party which was also granted. The agreement however took a surprising turn when the Samaritan passed away, resulting in his rights being claimed by his former partner - who in turn seemed to have been interested in more than her fair share of the club's facilities and in time found surprisingly little resistance in influencing people to recognise her claims and began to exercise excessive "rights" to the clubs facilities.
Currently, the long and the short of the latest developments at Rustenburg Impala Rugby Club is that in spite of a RLM Council resolution to once again approve the Rustenburg Impala Rugby Club's lease agreement of three years in March 2024, the club's Management Committee was stunned beyond belief when barely a few months later (June/July 2024) Mr Linda Jele, Director of Community Development at the RLM unilaterally approved a new and unauthorised lease agreement with the new pretender.
Henceforth the new prentender literally overnight assumed complete control of the premises and facilities of Rustenburg Impala Rugby Club, which inevitably led to the "termination" of several players' contracts since Rustenburg Impala Mines' withdrawal of its sponsorships/support in various forms until the dispute has been settled amicably.
The current situation since September/October of last year is that the club's premises is increasingly utilised for the hosting of public events/shows/festivals/parties such as during the recent Christmas holiday period with several large-scale performances hosted on the pitch with the financial spin-off benefiting the new pretender, of course. As far as community development, not to mention the hosting of sport such as rugby and soccer on the adjacent fields, absolutely zero has been taking place lately, with even practices being compromised by the fact that the club's bar, restaurant, ablution facilities and even the flood lights for after hours training are inaccessible to the rugby club. To add to the frustration several legal documents sent to the Municipal Manager (Adv Ashmar Khuduge) wherein the club is seeking confirmation as the rightful holder of the lease agreement invariably went unanswered and the club is at the end of its tether. Despite the Municipal Manager allegedly verbally reiterating that Rustenburg Impala Rugby Club is the only rightful/recognised holder of the lease agreement, the hesitancy to put pen to paper to confirm this goes beyond comprehension. "There is no question about the fact that the decision to appoint a third party as rightful holder of a lease agreement by a Director of RLM is in direct conflict and a clear violation of an official Council resolution not only to reaffirm Impala Rugby Club's three year lease agreement, but agreeing in principle to have the contract lease extended to nine years at the time of the next renewal of the agreement in March 2027,” Cllr Gert du Plessis of the DA in Rustenburg commented.
Needless to say, it is the view of some committee members of the Impala Rugby Club that Mr Jele's conduct was nothing but an obstruction of justice if not downright criminal which should lead to his immediate dismissal, Rustenburg Herald was told.
