By Henriette Geldenhuys
One of the senior sportswriters at the Sunday newspaper Rapport has made a statement to lawyers for the South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu) about former Sarfu media officer Alex Broun and the missing tapes of former Springbok coach Nick Mallett's disciplinary hearing, Rapport has confirmed.
This follows a police search of Broun's house in Camps Bay, Cape Town, on Monday, during which they found no evidence to link Broun to the theft of the tape recordings.
Broun has denied that the tapes were ever in his possession. They went missing soon after Mallett's disciplinary hearing, which was stopped mid-way when Mallett and Sarfu reached a settlement.
'Broun was on the warpath, not us' Broun resigned before a disciplinary hearing against him could proceed.
Sarfu instituted disciplinary proceedings against Mallett and Broun in connection with statements Mallett had made to a reporter about expensive test ticket prices.
Sarfu chief executive officer Rian Oberholzer laid a charge of theft against Broun in October.
Broun claimed the theft charge was based on information supplied by Rapport sportswriter Rudolph Lake.
Rapport's acting editor, Annemarie Mishcke, said Lake had made a statement to Sarfu's lawyers, but she said Lake had never made a statement to the police "or to any other investigating officer".
"Rapport has no first-hand information on what the tapes contain," said Mishcke.
Oberholzer did not want to comment on whether Rapport had approached Sarfu.
Oberholzer was asked whether it was true that Sarfu executives were all-powerful bullies who could kick employees out for petty reasons, as Broun has claimed.
At first he said he did not want to comment on "Broun's personal opinion of Sarfu", but when pressed for an answer, Oberholzer said: "Of course, we're not an all-powerful organisation. We're a sports organisation and we don't want to get involved in this issue."
Broun has accused Sarfu of being desperate to hide the information on the tape recordings.
The general manager of communications at Sarfu, Anthony Mackaiser, said there was nothing on the tapes which was damaging to Sarfu. Mackaiser said, "Broun was on the warpath, not us".
"We don't have an axe to grind," he said.
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