Four South African referees, Quinton Immelman, Cwengile Jadezweni, Rasta Rasivhenge and Egon Seconds, are set for a busy three months following their Africa Gold Cup appointments.
The four South African match officials will referee in the nine Tests between Kenya, Morocco, Namibia, Tunisia, Uganda and Zimbabwe from 16 June to 18 August -- the matches will be played in the capital cities of Windhoek, Harare, Nairobi and Kampala.
Immelman is set to officiate in three Test matches, while the other three have been appointed for two matches each.
"Quinton, Cwengile, Rasta and Egon have picked up a lot of experience in the last season or two and all of them have refereed at Test level, in Tests in Africa, which helped with their development as top class referees," said Banks Yantolo, Referee Manager at SA Rugby in a press release.
"By refereeing in the Africa Gold Cup tournament, which serves as qualification for the Rugby World Cup next year, they will get even more experience at a very high level, which bodes well for the future."
As a further boon for South African refereeing, a quartet of the country's best up-and-coming referees will be involved in two Sevens tournaments in the coming months too.
Lusanda Mtiya and Ashleigh Murray will officiate in the Africa Women's Sevens tournament in Gaborone (Botswana) on 26 and 27 May, while they will be joined by Paul Mente and Johre Botha in Swakopmund (Namibia) from 12 to 14 July for the World University Games Rugby Sevens tournament.
Jurie Roux, CEO of SA Rugby, spoke about the importance of South African referees officiating across the continent: "We have a clear objective to assist with growing the game in the rest of Africa and by sending some of our best match officials to the various Tests and tournaments on the continent, and supporting the Rugby Africa by availing our top referees, we are fulfilling that objective.
"By taking hands with our African counterparts, and sending our referees to their countries, we also allow the unions to share information and ideas on best practice models, to further develop and grow the game in their own countries or rugby regions."
Africa Gold Cup appointments
Cwengile Jadezweni (Namibia vs. Uganda, 16 June and Uganda vs. Tunisia, 11 August)
Quinton Immelman (Zimbabwe vs. Morocco, 16 June; Namibia vs. Tunisia, 23 June and Kenya vs. Uganda, 7 July)
Egon Seconds (Zimbabwe vs. Namibia, 4 August and Uganda vs. Zimbabwe, 18 August)
Rasta Rasivhenge (Uganda vs. Morocco, 11 August and Namibia vs. Kenya, 18 August)