CSA admits it has missed own deadline on finalising CEO’s suspension

Crisis-riddled Cricket South Africa (CSA) is set to continue operating with an acting accounting officer‚ at least for the foreseeable future‚ after the governing body admitted to failing to meet its own set deadline to finalise proceedings into suspended chief executive Thabang Moroe.

Friday marks exactly six months since Moroe was put on “precautionary suspension with pay” on December 6 last year on what the CSA board said was “allegations of misconduct”.

The Chris Nenzani-led CSA board said the decision to place Moroe on precautionary suspension followed reports from both the social and ethics and the audit and risk committees‚ which flagged “possible failure of controls in the organisation”.

CSA president and board chairperson Nenzani has been steadfast in his assurance to the cricket fraternity and the public that Moroe’s suspension “will be finalised in six months”.

But it has emerged this week that CSA are nowhere near finalisation of Moroe’s case‚ which has reportedly cost the organisation just over R2m. The CSA board admitted that they are still far from completing the matter‚ giving Covid-19 lockdown restrictions as a reason.

“The advent of Covid-19 has not only had a impact on the world health status ‚global it has also meant it could not be business as usual on the operations front‚” the CSA board said in an e-mail on Thursday when asked on the status of proceedings against Moroe.

The CSA board said this despite having signed off on a number of executive and non-executive management appointments during the lockdown.

Graeme Smith’s acting role as director of cricket was made permanent and Limpopo Cricket boss John Mogodu was elected as a non-independent director on the CSA board. CSA also concluded and announced two new commercial partnerships when leading national telecommunication providers BitCo Telecoms and Kemach Equipment came on board.

Another case illustrating how Covid-19 did not completely paralyse the CSA board was last week when the board extended acting chief executive Dr Jacques Faul’s interim role.

Faul was roped in a few days after

Moroe ’ s suspension.

The former Titans chief executive received a fresh mandate from the CSA board to carry out his duties beyond the end of his six-month contract on Friday.

Throughout his suspension‚ Moroe has never said a word but he broke his silence on Thursday.

“We are not in a position to comment in a media space at this present moment‚” Moroe’s legal team said.

“We will do so when the time is appropriate.”