Durban - Durban High School’s water polo coach Jean le Roux will face a disciplinary hearing this weekend when a committee set up by the sport’s provincial body hears evidence from players, referees and spectators at a league match in Durban last year when he jumped into the pool and assaulted an opposing team player.
Le Roux – who also coaches DHS Old Boys – has admitted assaulting the Clifton Mackerels player, but says he did it in defence of three of his young players who were being assaulted, and that the referee had lost control.
Details of the fracas first came to light when the coach launched an urgent Durban High Court application to uplift a suspension imposed by KwaZulu-Natal Water Polo after the incident in October last year, pending the outcome of the disciplinary process which, he argued, was being unfairly delayed.
The suspension meant he could not coach or participate at league, provincial or national level.
The matter was to be opposed by the provincial body, but when it was called before Judge King Ndlovu on Monday, it was simply adjourned with no order as to costs.
Le Roux’s attorney, Alan Weber, told The Mercury that this was because the disciplinary hearing had now been set down for the weekend.
“This is what we wanted. We did not want this to drag on any further.”
The adjournment means that he can come back to court should there be any other undue delays.
According to the charge sheet – attached to the court papers – Le Roux has been charged with bringing the sport into disrepute (failing to conduct himself in a professional manner) and brutality relating to the assault.
Le Roux claimed in his affidavit that the suspension was orchestrated by the coach of a rival school because of DHS’s success.
He said this was down to him and, if it were not for his successes, the matter would have been resolved long ago.
“The disciplinary committee, for the most part, consists of coaches and parents from our immediate competitors, and it is in their interests that I be removed as coach or that DHS’s participation in the league be hampered as much as possible,” he said.
The provincial body had indicated that the earliest date for his hearing was the end of February, but its attorney, Dunstan Farrell, confirmed on Monday that it would now take place this weekend.
The Mercury