One man, many jobs
2008-10-16
May Saal
LOCAL executive town councillor Arthob Petersen is to head the SA rugby team’s tour to Europe in November as acting manager. Petersen is an experienced councillor who currently heads the housing portfolio. He was team manager of the Springboks previously, but left after a disagreement with coach Jake White in 2006. He has also been the chairman of the soccer bid committee which is attempting to ensure that a foreign team selects Paarl as base camp for 2010. He visited Egypt last week with municipal officials to convene with representatives of the Egyptian soccer administration concerning the Confederation Cup tournament next year. When approached for comment on his multiple jobs, Petersen said he was not a one dimensional thinker. “I don’t want to live my life in one compartment. I know I am able to do more than one thing at a time. “This is not the first time that I will be Springbok team manager and councillor at the same time. I will ask for permission from Council to take on the additional responsibilities of Springbok team manager,” Petersen said. Petersen was Springbok team manager from 1994 to 1997 with Nick Mallet as coach, followed by a stormy term with Jake White from 2004 to 2006. Out of the hundreds of South African towns and cities that have shown interest in hosting base camps for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, Paarl has made the shortlist of 69. This means that when the qualifying countries are given a chance to choose where they would set up base for their World Cup campaign preparations, Paarl would be one of the options. An announcement on the base camps will be made after the Fifa 2010 World Cup draw in December 2009. Drakenstein and other municipalities bidding for a base camp will thus have to wait more than a year to know whether they are the chosen ones. Drakenstein Municipality has, in the mean time, already accepted a tender to redevelop the Parys cricket grounds as a base camp with hotel on the Berg River waterfront (see Business Post).
More
News
|
