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The Sports Confederation and the South African Olympic Committee (SASCOC), which is the watchdog for all high-performance sports in South Africa, have instructed Cricket South Africa’s board of directors and senior executives, including Acting CEO Kugandrie Govender, get them to step aside. SASCOC will now designate a task force to conduct an investigation into the issues at CSA. The panel will make findings and recommendations to SASCOC and the CSA Council of Members within one month of the completion of the task force members.
Along with Govender, Company Secretary Welsh Gwaza and Acting Business Director Thamie Mthembu will no longer participate in the day-to-day running of CSA. That means that as things stand on Thursday night, there is no one in charge of the operational running of cricket in South Africa.
SASCOC made the decision unanimously at a board meeting Tuesday because of what it said are “the many cases of mismanagement and negligence” at CSA that “have discredited cricket.”
It has not yet been determined whether SASCOC’s action constitutes government interference that goes against the ICC’s code of conduct. The ICC has already received a complaint against CSA from the Institute of Race Relations that opposed CSA’s affirmative action hiring policy.
SASCOC has taken action after “at least” nine months of CSA in crisis dating back to December last year, when former CEO Thabang Moroe was suspended. Moroe was fired last month based on a forensic report that revealed “acts of gross misconduct.”
However, CSA has not made the report available to the public or SASCOC and it is even understood that its own Council of Members (the body of the 14 provincial presidents) had to sign nondisclosure agreements before viewing the report. SASCOC had demanded to see the report before CSA’s AGM, which was initially scheduled for September 5 but was postponed. CSA’s inability to produce the report to SASCOC, as well as a series of recent resignations, including that of Chairman Chris Nenzani and Acting Chief Executive Officer Jacques Faul, fueled SASCOC’s interest in further investigation into CSA, which indicated that he had not cooperated in explaining the myriad problems plaguing the organization. .
“SASCOC has attempted to address these issues in two meetings with the CSA Board: one was exploratory and the other was not conducted primarily due to the fact that CSA did not make the Fundudzi Forensic Report available to the SASCOC Board despite of the promises and commitments by CSA to do so, “said a letter from SASCOC to the CSA Council of Members, seen by ESPNcricinfo. “CSA has received our letter which records that the Board’s decision to make such a report available only to a limited extent to the Chairman and members of the Board of SASCOC, is totally unreasonable and irrational given the apparent nature and scope of the report. “.
As a result of not being able to access the full report, a task force will now conduct its own investigations into the administrative and / or financial matters of CSA. The task force members have not yet been identified, but when they are, the CSA board and all staff who have been instructed to retire are expected to “assist the task force in carrying out its mandate, when appropriate. necessary, when prompted do so. “
This leaves cricket in South Africa at an uncertain juncture, with no match completed for next season due to begin imminently. No national or international matches have been published with South Africa’s borders still closed due to the coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown is still in effect. Although competitive matches can be played, CSA has yet to reveal any plans for the 2020-21 season, in addition to appointing a new high-performing management staff on Thursday.
From now on, this will not affect the participation of South African players in the IPL or other competitions.
