Tragedy ·
Delicious RFC suspended after Riaan Loots’s death
The Rawsonville flyhalf died after a June 2006 match. Inquiries followed, and two Delicious players were charged with murder; the club’s lawyer denied that Loots had been beaten or kicked to death.
Riaan Loots died after a Boland club rugby match between Rawsonville and Delicious RFC on June 23, 2006. In the aftermath, the Boland Rugby Union suspended Delicious from all activities pending an inquiry. Opposition players were alleged to have punched and kicked the Rawsonville flyhalf during a fight; the club’s lawyer later denied that Loots had been beaten or kicked to death.
Loots was declared brain dead on arrival at hospital and died two days later, according to an account attributed to SABC television news. The incident became the subject of rugby proceedings and a police investigation.
The rugby inquiry began behind closed doors. SABC reported that statements had been submitted by a referee, two touch judges, a paramedic and the doctor on duty at the hospital, and that no statements would be made public until the inquiry concluded. A separate inquiry was also under way into the causes of the incident. Delicious’s suspension was an interim measure pending the outcome, not a final disciplinary finding.
At that early stage, local police said they had completed their investigation and were waiting for the Attorney-General to decide whether to prosecute. By November, Delicious players Ben Zimri and Wayne Matthee had been charged with Loots’s murder.
On November 21, the Worcester Regional Court granted the state a further postponement so it could obtain a comprehensive doctor’s report on Loots’s injuries. The delay would also allow the Boland Rugby Union disciplinary hearing to run its course. Zimri and Matthee were released on a warning and told to return on January 16, 2007. Members of their club gathered outside the court in support.
The account of how Loots died remained contested. At the disciplinary hearing, Martin Green, the lawyer representing Delicious, blamed Loots’s own players for his death. “He was never beaten to death. He was never kicked to death,” Green argued. “After consulting with all our players, that’s the only version we can forward.”