South African union axes referees' chief Andre Watson;

The contract of South Africa's head of referees Andre Watson has been terminated with immediate effect, the South African Rugby Union (SARU) said on Friday (Saturday NZ Time).

Watson, who officiated in the 1999 and 2003 World Cup finals, lost a hearing with South Africa's Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) as he fought his dismissal for allegedly verbally abusing colleagues.

"Contrary to some earlier reports, the allegations that were dealt with by the CCMA did not relate to racism, financial irregularities, misappropriation or match fixing but to the relationship between Watson and a number of people within the Referees' Department and in turn the impact of such relationships on SARU," SARU said in a statement.

In January, 24 match officials from SARU signed a list of grievances against Watson, reported at the time to be the manner in which he interacted with colleagues, which led to a disciplinary hearing and ultimately his dismissal.

His appeal against that dismissal was unsuccessful.

Watson also officiated in five deciding matches in Super Rugby and seven domestic Currie Cup finals.

 - Reuters

 ...Let me translate this article into English for you JW...South African referee Andre Watson as reported earlier was indeed axed for match fixing ,embezzlement and being a right royal racist little narcissist to understate matters somewhat -

...unfortunately ten or twenty years too late for NZ and Aussie Rugby - Brycy of course completely aware that we were being duped the whole time...

  ...Watson will now be recognised as one of South Africa's Greats for keeping the tradition and a long history of corrupt SA refereeing alive and there will be a statue erected in his honour at Ellis Park posthaste..

 ...Bean Brain one needs to read between the lines - something Brycy excels at but you obviously struggle with... must be extremely hard to see yr hero taking such an almighty fall from grace like this....but if he wasn't axed for " racism, financial irregularities, misappropriation or match fixing" then why was it even mentioned I wonder ...???...

...Obviously because it's the truth and we're seeing a complete whitewash due to the ramifications of having a corrupt yarpy ref being in charge for so many years...