Cricket SA slapped with an ultimatum
Embattled Cricket South Africa (CSA) has been issued with an ultimatum to release the forensic audit and reports from the investigation into alleged mismanagement of funds in relation to the stadium upgrades at North West Cricket (NWC) or face legal action by today.
The ultimatum was issued by Jaco Ebersohn‚ a former NWC acting CEO who was in charge for a brief stint during the R10m infrastructure development at Senwes Park Stadium in three years ago. Ebersohns ’Potchefstroom letter of demand was addressed to CSA acting CEO Kugandrie Govender‚ acting president Beresford Williams‚ company secretary Welsh Gwaza‚ including NWC CEO HP Prinsloo and administrator Archie Pretorius. The former NWC acting CEO resigned from his role in October 2017 after a few months in the job and has not been involved with the provincial cricket body since then. However‚ he was implicated in allegations of mismanagement of funds in the stadium projects that surfaced in June 2018 after his exit. NWC subsequently decided to appoint a Potchefstroom-based auditing firm‚ Gericke Rademeyer‚ to conduct an investigation.
Ebersohn said he was never contacted or interviewed during the Gericke Rademeyer investigation and did not receive an outcome of the probe. He said he participated in another internal investigation conducted by external labour lawyer Deanne Howes of Howes Incorporated but again he was not given an outcome of the probe. As allegations of maladministration threatened to destroy the NWC finances and brand‚ CSA exercised its “step-in rights” in December 2018 and placed the union under administration.
CSA appointed former NWC president Pretorius as the administrator and a forensic audit and investigation was conducted by Deloitte in January last year.
The auditing firm submitted its findings and recommendations in June last year.
Ebersohn took issue with a report in a Potchefstroom local newspaper which suggested that he was involved in the maladministration during the stadium upgrades. NWC received a total of R10m to upgrade their facilities but a forensic audit and investigation‚ conducted by Deloitte and seen by Sowetan’s sister publication TimesLIVE‚ has uncovered that not all the money was used on the stadium project. Sources within NWC told TimesLIVE that former CEO Vincent Prior allegedly used R1m meant for stadium upgrades for operational expenses such as paying staff salaries and bonuses. The sources said the trend continued even after Prior left and was replaced with Ebersohn. The former acting CEO is mentioned in all three reports of the alleged maladministration.
Ebersohn wants to clear his name and is now threatening CSA with legal action unless it shares the forensic reports with him. “You will appreciate the fact that our client has a direct vested interest in each of these reports and an obligation to obtain all three above-mentioned forensic reports to enable him to answer to the defamatory statements which were printed concerning his alleged conduct‚” lawyers acting on behalf of Ebersohn told CSA.