South African rugby slipped deeper into chaos on Wednesday as at least four of its seven top rugby bosses quit their posts, but union supremo Brian van Rooyen refused to heed a call to step down.
Four other members of the South African Rugby Union's (SARU) management structure including its deputy president Andre Markgraaff hung up their boots following a call by South Africa's sports minister and the country's umbrella sporting federation on Tuesday.
"The recent call by the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee [SASCOC] for the management committee of SA Rugby to step down has been largely heeded," SASCOC chairman Moss Mashishi said.
"Essentially the only person who has not submitted his resignation is Brian van Rooyen," Mashishi said at a press conference in Johannesburg. By late Wednesday, resignations for only four of the seven administrators had been confirmed.
Months of wrangling and power struggles boiled to the surface over the weekend when van Rooyen's deputy Markgraaff accused him of mismanagement, presenting a "dossier of irregularities" to the local media.
Markgraaff accused Van Rooyen of clinching contracts for a new series between northern-hemisphere teams and South Africa without informing his own management team.
"Commission from the contracts will apparently run into millions of rands and questions are being asked about who received commission from the negotiations," the Afrikaans Sunday paper Rapport said.
Van Rooyen hit back the same day by gleaning the support of at least nine of rugby's 14 provinces, which backed him at a press conference.
The government and SASCOC stepped in on Monday, calling for van Rooyen, Markgraaff and the rest of rugby's top management's heads.
But van Rooyen -- who had until yesterday afternoon to tender his resignation -- has given no indication that he would do so.
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