Bryan Habana: I trusted my father, only to discover he’d been stealing from me for eight years
Springbok great Bryan Habana says he hasn't had a relationship with his father Bernie Habana over the last 15 years.
Image: File
Global rugby icon and Springbok legend Bryan Habana has opened up about how he found out his father had been stealing money from him when he acted as his agent.
Habana burst onto the scene with the Lions in 2003 and went on to have one of the most remarkable rugby careers in the history of the sport.
Between 2004 and 2016, Habana played over 100 Tests for the Springboks, scoring 67 tries, the most by a Springbok. He was also a key member of the Springboks’ 2007 Rugby World Cup-winning squad. Today, he sits in second place on the list of top international try scorers, two behind Japanese great Daisuke Ohata.
In the early years of his career, Habana was represented by his father Bernie, whom he credits for signing one of the biggest contracts in South African rugby at the time when he moved from the Bulls to the Stormers in 2009.
And at the height of his fame, Habana was one of the faces of Gillette’s "Champions/Best a Man Can Get" advertising campaign alongside tennis great Roger Federer, French football star Thierry Henry, and golf icon Tiger Woods.
However, it was during that move to Cape Town that Habana painfully discovered his father, who he had trusted to run his financial affairs, was taking money off the top.
Speaking in the Business of Sport podcast, Habana detailed how he found out and how it affected his relationship with his father.
“Trust is a really difficult thing to understand. My trust rested with my dad, who was managing that side of my life [finances] from a very young age, only to find out eight years later that the trust I thought I had was not being had," Habana told the podcast.
“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.”
Detailing how he found out, he said it was while trying to buy a house in Cape Town after moving to the Stormers.
“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 because I need to buy a house,’ and he said, ‘It’s coming.’
“The more I asked, the more the money wasn’t coming. At one point, the estate agent in Cape Town said, ‘If you don’t pay the deposit now, you’re going to lose the house.’ It was our dream home and we couldn’t lose it, so I had to get bridging finance from an institution because I wasn’t getting any of my nest egg.
“I spoke to my dad and I asked, ‘What’s happening here?’ There was a time of about three months where nothing was coming. At the end of 2009, I was in talks with Adidas and Canterbury about an apparel sponsorship… On the first of January 2010, I sent out an email to all of my sponsors after finding out things had been a bit dodgy, saying any negotiations or contractual talks that had been held with my dad up until December 31 were null and void, and any future negotiations needed to come directly to me or to my lawyer.
“The CEO of Canterbury International emailed me back immediately saying, ‘We’ve just signed you for five years. We’ve paid a very big re-signing fee to sign you for the next five years.’ I phoned my dad asking where the money was, and he said he didn’t receive any money, but I had the contract in front of me.
“He was living a life off the money. I thought we had signed a trust document for the Bryan Habana Trust and found out that it 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 whole incident resulted in the complete breakdown of their relationship.
“When I did approach him with the facts, he denied everything. I did not get a cent of the Gillette money.”
He credited his wife Janine, with whom he has two children, for helping him get over the ordeal, and now puts as much energy into ensuring that they will always be taken care of.
On whether he would like to repair his relationship with his father, he said: “I would easily choose it if he was willing to meet halfway. When I approached and gave him an opportunity for truth, the truth wasn’t spoken. For me now, my most important thing is my tribe; Janine and my sons are my most important.
“My mom and I also have a weathered relationship, unfortunately. I see her often, but she also chose things knowingly of what was happening. So, my tribe is my most important. Do I still love my mom? Yes. Would I still love a relationship with my dad? Possibly, but my tribe is most important to me right now.
“It would be amazing to have a relationship with him, but I gave him an opportunity. Bump your head once, it’s a mistake. Bump your head twice, and it’s your fault,” said the Bok legend.
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