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Cape Town - The Blue Bulls Company’s CEO, Barend van Graan, has responded after former employer Tim Dlulane took a swipe at the union following his dismissal.
The Bulls started with a retrenchment process in August and Dlulane was one of the unlucky parties who lost his job as team manager.
The 36-year-old former Bulls and Springbok loose forward was upset at his dismissal and shared his discontent in an interview with Netwerk24.
Dlulane told the Afrikaans website that the Bulls’ retrenchment process was a smokescreen and not transparent.
He questioned the Bulls’ commitment to transformation as well as the the position of Xander Janse Van Rensburg, the union's high performance manager in charge of player recruitment.
According to Dlulane, Janse van Rensburg had played a major role “in what went wrong at the Bulls over the last few seasons”.
When asked for comment, Van Graan said the Blue Bulls Company fully supports SA Rugby’s strategic transformation plan, saying the union "creates opportunities for talented players, whatever ethnicity or colour".
Van Graan also said the allegations against Janse van Rensburg were “malicious and non-factual”.
Finally, the Bulls CEO insisted that Dlulane was relieved of his duties in a lawful manner.
Van Graan said the retrenchment process was done in accordance with sections 189 and 189A of the Labour Relations Act and managed by an independent lawyer.
He said that at no stage did Dlulane, or the other affected parties, question the transparency of the process.
The others retrenched were Pine Pienaar (defence coach), Nqubeko Zulu (under-21 team manager), Dewey Swartbooi and Denzil Frans (both coaches of the under-19 team).
Dlulane played rugby as a loose forward for the Bulls and also played one Test for the Springboks - against Wales in Cardiff in 2004.
His career was however cut short in 2006 when he sustained a serious neck injury in a Currie Cup game.
Dlulane was first employed by the Bulls in 2007 when he became junior high performance team manager with responsibilities ranging from the management of budgets for the Vodacom Cup and junior teams, the procurement of equipment and apparel, as well as day to day organisation.
He became the Bulls' team manager in 2014 when he replaced Wynie Strydom.
In 2009 and 2010, Dlulane also worked with SA Rugby as the logistics manager for the South African under-20 team.
