Three disgruntled former Cricket South Africa (CSA) board members this week stepped up their efforts for an external inquiry into the organisation’s finances by sending their grievances to the chief executives of the 11 provincial affiliates.
Colin Beggs (former chairman of Cricket SA’s Audit Committee), Hentie van Wyk (former chairman of CSA’s Finance Committee) and Paul Harris (former head of the Remuneration Committee) took their grievances to the provinces, saying they had a direct stake in the goings-on at national boardroom level and calling on the affiliates to pressure their presidents – who sit on the CSA board – to call for a detailed and independent review of CSA’s finances.
This latest move comes just a week before a scheduled meeting between the board and estranged president Mtutuzeli Nyoka, where it is understood the majority of board members will ask for a motion of no confidence in Nyoka.
Last week, Sports Ministers Fikile Mbalula stepped into the fray, attempting to calm nerves and expressing the government’s unhappiness that “there was no proper briefing from the side of CSA in passing a motion of no confidence in Nyoka”.
Prior to Mbalula’s intervention, Nyoka had called chief executive Gerald Majola a ‘liar’ in an interview on Radio 702, explaining how Majola had not kept him fully informed about the dealings between CSA and the Indian Premier League, which was hosted in this country in 2009.
Majola and senior CSA administrative staff subsequently received bonuses for hosting that event, which came under scrutiny last year after it was found they hadn’t properly informed the board about receiving the bonus money.
Majola was largely exonerated and allowed to keep the bonus following an internal enquiry which was chaired by CSA’s present vice-president, AK Khan.
However, Beggs, Van Wyk and Harris, are understood to be unhappy about the findings of that inquiry, especially as their submissions were apparently ignored.
In writing to the provincial affiliates the three stated that: “As directors of a company you have a fiduciary duty to act in the interests of the company irrespective of your affiliations in the so-called ‘power struggle’.”
The three further expressed their concern that in “pursuit of a solution in what is an ugly political spat among administrators, there will be a negotiated and therefore compromised settlement of the governance issues by agreeing to sweep them under the carpet in pursuit of compromise and ‘peace’”.
They reiterated the call, made last December in their response to the review committee’s findings, that the affiliates be given the submissions made to the Khan Committee for them “to come to their own conclusions”.
Beggs, Van Wyk and Harris have also sent their grievances to Haroon Lorgat, the International Cricket Council’s chief executive, which include Friday’s letter to the affiliates and their concerns over the findings of Khan’s committee.