THE dispute between Trustco Group International (TGI) and the Namibia Rugby Union (NRU) is headed to court.
The latest development is said to make it very unlikely that an international sevens rugby tournament will be held in Namibia later this year.
It is understood that Trustco is suing the NRU for N$3,7 million, an amount alleged to be what Trustco spent on last year's international sevens tournament.
The N$3,7 million will be in addition to about N$1 million owed to service providers from last year's tournament.
Trustco is allegedly planning to use a termination clause in its sponsorship agreement with the NRU which states that when the agreement is cancelled, any debt incurred during the agreement will be the responsibility of the NRU.
The Namibian has it on good authority that Trustco recently served the NRU with a legal notice, terminating their relationship and requesting payment of N$3,7 million.
The notice came after an alleged deadline set for the end of May, for the NRU to get International Rugby Board sanctioning for this year's envisaged tournament, was not met.
It appears that the demand to get IRB sanctioning, despite the IRB having approved last year's tournament, was an added condition to the possible hosting of this year's tournament, despite the two parties having signed a six-year contract.
It is believed that Trustco put up the precondition in case it had to pay off the debt incurred during last year's tournament. Some of the service providers are taking legal action against the NRU despite an agreement that Trustco was going to cover all the costs of the tournament.
Safari Hotel is one of the service providers owed money from last year's tournament. The hotel is owed N$800 000.
According to sources close to the NRU, the IRB sanctioning was delayed since the IRB had questions relating to the agreement. The IRB is said to be concerned about the protection of the NRU in the deal.
The initial agreement signed last year stated that Trustco would be responsible for the business side of the tournament, marketing, branding, television rights and running the financing of the tournament.
The NRU's responsibility was to invite the teams and ensure that the stadium was ready for the tournament.
Trustco is now demanding N$3,7 million from the rugby union, although sources close to the NRU stated that no audited financial report of the tournament was made available to prove whether Trustco really had paid that much for the tournament.
The NRU has allegedly requested more details pertaining to the suit and how TGI arrived at that figure.
Things started falling apart in February when Trustco Managing Director Quinton van Rooyen accused the NRU in a letter of breach of contract and demanded the immediate repayment of a loan of N$228 000.
The loan relates to air travel fees for the Namibian sevens rugby team to Dubai in December last year owed to Sky Travel. Van Rooyen at the time accused the NRU of being in breach of contract for "incurring expenses in our name without our consent".
In the letter, Van Rooyen accused the NRU of failing to pay N$140 000 to Trustco by the end of January as part of a N$228 000 loan it owed to Trustco.
Trustco at the time also threatened not to pay any outstanding debts that emanated from their relationship, including the September rugby sevens tournament.
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Rugby insiders said Trustco had admitted responsibility for the Sky Travel debt and had asked that invoices be made out to Trustco and not the NRU. The two parties have since been in talks but they yielded no positive results.
The two last year entered into a six-year, N$18 million deal aimed at promoting sevens rugby in Namibia. Trustco had committed N$3 million a year for the NRU, of which N$2,5 million would go towards the hosting of an annual international sevens tournament and the rest for the national sevens team.
NRU CEO Sakkie Mouton confirmed that there was correspondence between the two parties. He added that NRU was reviewing the matter and would make a public statement as soon as its executive had made a decision.
No comment could be obtained from Trustco since Van Rooyen was out of the country.
3 comments:
That is not all, at the Safaricom Sevens a war of ensued between (former?) Kenya Sevens nutritionist and girlfriend of top KRFU official, Wanjiku Wairia and members of the Fourth Estate. She sent one of the journalists working with an international media company packing from the media center, for not having a media accreditation badge. Despite the plea from the rest of the journalists and Safaricom officials at the scene, she went ahead and called the KK security men, and made them bundle the journalist and the camera man. Be ashamed, Wanjiku
Just read this post, @ anonymous little knowledge is dangerous.
First the lady in question is the nutrition consultant for the union & not for Kenya 7s alone. Secondly she didn't throw the journalist out it was the secretary of the union who threw him out. Finally even I, an international journalist, applied and got my accreditation where was he when the rest of us were applying? This kind of nonsense is what give us a bad name.
The lady followed procedure was professional to everyone yet we want to give her a hard time for doing her job?
Let's get serious!
Wanjiku, you did a professional job we hope you keep the spirit going don't let anyone make you mediocre.
anonymous917 u surely do need help.Lets entertain your nonsense for a minute. You say that the person did not have accreditation?So should the person be left there because he is a journalist with an international media company? what do the rules say? if you do not have accreditation you do not go into certain areas, are u trying to say that if someone came in for free we should let them go ahead coz we all know him from tv or wherever. Rules are rules dont hate someone for doing their job.On top of that this is a rugby blog, whoever she dates is not important to this blog u need to sort out whatever issues you have with her as oppose to bringing it here to look for approval. I really wonder what u look like, wait a minute let me look up the word IDIOT........
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