Warring parties find truce for sake of golf caddies

SPORT

A months-long bitter fall-out between the trustees who founded an initiative to highlight the plight of local golf caddies has been resolved.

In March this year, City Press reported on the launch of Finding the Fair Way Foundation at the Johannesburg Country Club in Woodmead, where a four-ball event raised more than R360 000 for the caddies.

The golf day on March 10 attracted prominent figures, including UDM leader Bantu Holomisa, former Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke and renowned Advocate Vincent Maleka.

READ: Local caddies still regarded as informal workers

Not long after the event, Dinky Moropane, a disgruntled member of the foundation, accused fellow trustees of lacking accountability over the money raised through sponsorship and donations, entry fees and an auction of special items during the launch dinner.

Moropane insinuated that the board, led by Jeff van Rooyen and fellow directors Barry Cohen and Rob Schermbrucker, used the foundation as their “cash cow”.

This did not sit well with Van Rooyen and Cohen, who were both singled out by Moropane for wrongdoing.

The group established the Finding the Fair Way project in 2018 to raise awareness of the plight of the caddies but their relationship with Moropane has since soured. Amid a barrage of accusations from Moropane, Van Rooyen told City Press in April that the foundation had “nothing to hide or fear” and dismissed the claims as misconceptions.

They sued Moropane for defamation.

Instead of fighting back, Moropane has now gone cap in hand to Finding the Fairway.

The warring parties subsequently agreed to a truce, on the condition that Moropane apologised for the statements he made in City Press in April.

A keen social golfer and a businessperson, Moropane said