Cricket SA takes first tentative step into a new era
MINISTER of Sport Nathi Mthethwa’s office will move quickly to ensure that his invoking of Section 13 of the National Sports and Recreation Act against Cricket South Africa is removed from the Government Gazette.
That decision follows yesterday’s vote by Cricket SA’s Members Council to agree to the changes required to the federation’s Memorandum of Incorporation (MoI) that will ensure a new board of directors is made up of a majority of independent officials, with an independent director as that board’s chairperson.
That the new MoI was unanimously agreed to, is a staggering outcome after months in which an intransigent minority of the Members Council dug in its heels, defied the country’s players, the government and the public.
There was relief all around in South African cricket circles yesterday and even in Mthethwa’s office.
The Sports Minister had spent months desperately trying to avoid getting involved in a messy saga which had its origins in December 2019 when then CSA chief executive Thabang Moroe was suspended.
Despite requesting the
SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) to use its authority to resolve the crisis, Mthethwa had to step in on two occasions to prevent the organisation’s total implosion.
While Sascoc continues to believe the Minister has acted beyond his remit, the Olympic body itself may yet face scrutiny after angering Mthethwa with a crass attempt at preventing the process from unfolding, when Sascoc’s president Barry Hendricks stepped in at a special general meeting on April 17, to read a letter, when he wasn’t even supposed to speak.
Mthethwa has stated publicly that while Sascoc was presented as a “paragon of correctness and uprightness”, it is not.
Yesterday brought good news – for now.
After Mthethwa had announced last Thursday that he was invoking his powers according to the Act, which would have removed recognition of CSA as the governing authority for the sport in South Africa, a series of meetings, including a lengthy one last Sunday, saw CSA’s Members Council and the Interim Board appointed by Mthethwa last October, reach an agreement about the implementation of the MoI.
Some minor tweaks still need to be made, but the two main principles – a board on which the majority of directors are independent (not involved in CSA or any of its provincial unions, nor have been for the four preceding years), and the board’s chairperson drawn from that group – will oversee CSA’s administration.
“We have now reached the stage where we can move to complete one of the outstanding issues of our mandate which is to hold the Annual General Meeting,” said Dr Stavros Nicolaou, the Interim Board’s chairperson.
“I would like to thank the Members’ Council for ensuring that this resolution is passed. Cricket is now poised to move forward with a new governance structure.”