Crucial report being withheld
THERE is a growing chorus within Cricket South Africa’s highest decision-making body, the Members Council, for it to be given the forensic audit report, which has been in the organisation’s possession for seven weeks.
The Council – made up of the 14 provincial union presidents – made two requests in the last week for the report to be turned over but both requests were denied.
The first time the council was told there would be a response in 48 hours and then on Monday it received a “long winded” legal response provided by CSA’s company secretary Welsh Gwaza about why the report couldn’t be released.
The Members Council still hasn’t viewed the forensic report, which it commissioned, into the conduct of CSA’s suspended chief executive Thabang Moroe.
The report is seen as central to Cricket SA correcting itself from an administrative perspective and then being able to deal with several other issues facing the organisation.
Those include its transformation policy, how it will deal with racism, the financial problems it faces, as well as getting the men’s national team – the sport’s principle moneymaker in the country – back to being competitive.
At least one union has asked for the report “a few times” and been rebuffed, and there is now understood to be growing angst among Members Council representatives about not just the content of the report but why it’s being delayed.
Cricket SA refused to comment about why its highest decisionmaking body could not view the report.
“CSA are not in a position to divulge the details of the discussions at Members Council unless and until Members Council gives an instruction to this effect,” was the terse reply it provided to inquiries made yesterday.
The Members Council joins a growing list of entities demanding the report’s release.
Thus far, one representative of the council, Northerns Cricket Union president Tebogo Siko, has asked publicly that it be handed over to the provincial presidents and the players’ union, while the SA Cricketers’ Association have asked for the forensic investigation to be finalised.
Earlier this week, a group of eminent former administrators including former CSA and ICC president Ray Mali called for elections at next Saturday’s AGM to be postponed and that an interim committee be composed to run CSA while it sorts out the current mess inside the organisation.
Meanwhile, CSA has been accused of employing bullying tactics by Moroe’s legal team regarding the date for his next meeting with the Board of Directors.
“They (CSA) agree a date among themselves, find one that suits them and their lawyers, and then impose a date on us,” Moroe’s lawyer Michael Motsoeneng Bill said yesterday.
He said he’s told CSA that he’s not available either today – CSA’s original date for the meeting – nor their alternative date on Saturday.
The meeting is a follow-up to a first meeting between CSA’s board and Moroe that took place two weeks ago.
The parties failed to reach an agreement on a way forward with Motsoeneng Bill at the time saying CSA was attempting to rush the process.
He reiterated that yesterday, saying “it seems they need to have an outcome” before CSA’s AGM on September 5.
Motsoeneng Bill said he would be available next week but has not heard back from CSA.