Habana opens up on father’s betrayal

Springbok great Bryan Habana has revealed how he discovered that his father had been stealing from him during the early years of his career.

Habana, who scored a record 67 tries for the Springboks in 124 Tests between 2004 and 2016 and was a key member of the 2007 World Cup-winning side, made the disclosure on the Business of Sport podcast.

In a candid interview, the former Bok winger explained how the person he trusted most was mismanaging – and taking – his money while acting as his agent.

“Trust is a really difficult thing to understand,” Habana said. “My trust rested with my dad, who was managing that side of my life from a very young age, only to find out eight years later that the trust I thought I had was not being had.

“I unfortunately lost quite a bit of money because the one person I thought I could trust mismanaged my funds and used them for his own over the course of eight years.”

Habana said the truth emerged after his move from the Bulls to the Stormers in 2009, when he and his family tried to buy a house in Cape Town.

“We had to put down a deposit on a house and I went to my dad and said, ‘Listen, I need to take a bit of money out of my nest egg,’” Habana explained. “‘The more I asked, the more the money wasn’t coming.’”

The situation escalated when the estate agent warned they were about to lose the property.

“It was our dream home and we couldn’t lose it, so I had to get bridging finance because I wasn’t getting any of my nest egg.”

The final revelation came when Habana contacted sponsors directly in early 2010.

“The CEO of Canterbury International emailed me back immediately saying, ‘We’ve just signed you for five years and paid a very big re-signing fee,’” he recalled. “I phoned my dad asking where the money was, and he said he hadn’t received anything – but I had the contract in front of me.”

Habana said he later discovered that a trust he believed had been set up in his name never existed.

“The Bryan Habana Trust, which I thought all of my commercial money was getting paid into, was actually my dad’s bank account.”

The fallout was permanent.

“When I approached him with the facts, he denied everything,” Habana said. “I did not get a cent of the Gillette money.”