End in sight for CSA’s administrative troubles

EVEN as Cricket SA’s interim board has had the time to complete its work extended by the Sports Minister, a new dawn is becoming visible for the federation with it’s AGM set to take place in April.

That Annual General Meeting will serve as the point where the interim board’s tenure ends, but there is still plenty to do, including wrapping up disciplinary procedures against two senior administrators, while polishing the necessary changes to CSA’s Memorandum of Incorporation to allow for the new, sleeker, more independently dominant board of directors.

“It’s like rewriting the constitution of a country – although it is cricket-focused, but the intention is to modernise the governance and strengthen and enhance (the MoI),” said the interim board’s chairman, Stavros Nicolaou.

In an extended press briefing yesterday, Nicolaou outlined how the board’s most important work was implementing the recommendations of the Nicholson report, first published a decade ago, following a commission of inquiry chaired by retired judge Chris Nicholson into the ‘bonus scandal’.

Among the recommendations was for a smaller board dominated by independent directors. Cricket SA only partially implemented the recommendations, but now, with backing from Sports Minister Nathi Mthethwa, that will change.

“Government spent a lot on the Nicholson report and process and therefore we must find a way of implementing it. This is not a negotiation thing, it is how the report is to be implemented,” Mthethwa, who also attended the briefing, remarked.

The interim board sought advice from governance expert Michael Katz, and through a team he appointed, came up with an “amended and adjusted MoI” that was put before the board and CSA Members Council for consideration.

Nicolaou explained that a special general meeting – involving the interim board and the Members Council – would take place in the first half of March, where the Katz team’s recommendations would hopefully be passed. “The special general meeting will form the platform that will lead us to an annual general meeting that is anticipated to be between the 10-17 April.”

As for moving away from the two centres of power, which caused much of CSA’s structural problems – with the board clashing with the members council or members council representatives serving on the board and thus lacking clarity in decision-making – Nicolaou was hopeful that through the Katz processes those areas would be cleaned up.

“What we need to do is have appropriate governance between the two structures, so that you don’t get any attended conflicts of interest and or governance drifting. We are engaging with the members council, significant progress has been made and we’ll be adjusting them in the latest drafts.”

Nicolaou said it would be up to the permanent board – once it was in place – to choose CSA’s next chief executive.

*Meanwhile, Haroon Lorgat, who serves on the interim board, said disciplinary procedures against CSA’s company secretary, Welsh Gwaza, and the former stand-in chief executive, Kugandrie Govender, would hopefully be wrapped up by the end of the month.

Lorgat confirmed that the Gwaza hearing went into its seventh day yesterday. Lorgat said the process had been drawn out with several postponements sought for various reasons. “Hopefully now we are nearing the end of it,” he commented.

Govender’s disciplinary hearing will take place next week. Both hearings are being chaired by advocate Terry Motau.