Ken Borland

The South African Cricketers’ Association – the players’ union – are mulling taking legal action under the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) to ensure Cricket South Africa release the forensic report that led to the dismissal of former CEO Thabang Moroe, SACA chief executive Andrew Breetzke revealed on Wednesday.

CSA postponed their AGM scheduled for September 5 with one of the reasons given being that there were so many unresolved issues arising from the Fundudzi forensic report into Moroe. Up till then, the Members Council, who had commissioned the investigation, had not been allowed to view the report unless they travelled to Bowman Gilfillan’s offices in Johannesburg and signed a non-disclosure agreement.

Members of the Members Council were optimistic that they would now be allowed to study the outcome of the report they instituted, with relaxed conditions, but it seems that has not been the case. The secrecy behind the report has led to growing frustration amongst the cricket-loving public and other stakeholders, with speculation now rife that the report also implicates Board members and company secretary Welsh Gwaza in misgovernance.

Speaking on a Daily Maverick webinar on Wednesday, both Breetzke and governance expert Judith February, a lawyer based at the Institute for Security Studies, called on the Members Council to demand their right to see the report is respected, failing which SACA will need to launch legal action.

“In December/January there was already enough information for a proper investigation but everything was linked to the forensic report, which was a mistake. They could have dealt with Thabang Moroe back then and South African cricket would have been in a better position now. What our cricket desperately needs now is certainty and consistency as we move into a very difficult time for the game.

“We have formally asked CSA in the past to release the report, but obviously that has not happened. We are stakeholders in that report because of the breakdown in CSA’s relationship with SACA and if it is not forthcoming in the next two to three weeks then we will have to go the legal route and apply under PAIA. There will be no peace in South African cricket until that report comes out,” Breetzke said on Wednesday.

“CSA don’t seem to understand that they operate in a democracy, they appear to be tone-deaf to the fact that the public have a stake in the game,” February said. “At the moment it feels like the public is totally disregarded, and CSA have a lot of work to do to restore their faith. When an organisation is very badly managed and has the wrong people in power, people who abuse power and mismanage finances, then it leads to a forensic report.

“The Members Council commissioned that report and it is bizarre that it is being kept secret. because it is being so closely guarded, we can only assume that it implicates others. But that report will come out because we live in a democracy and the public, the players and the stakeholders in the game have the right to know. A PAIA request is the way to go because the report is certainly in the public and players’ interest,” the former head of IDASA’s governance programme said.

February said the governance of CSA was so terrible that the Members Council should immediately dissolve the Board.

“CSA have lurched from crisis to crisis and there have been rumblings all over about how bad their governance has been. The wake-up call that something rotten was going on came when journalists’ accreditation was withdrawn. That clearly showed they were an organisation insecure in power and closed off to the public, that set off all sorts of alarm bells.

“The Nicholson Inquiry was quite clear that it wanted nine non-executive independent directors with real skill and gravitas, but the Board has been seven non-independent and just five independent directors since 2013. The Members Council should dissolve the Board. And the company secretary [Gwaza] has also become extraordinarily powerful, which is unusual to say the least,” the Visiting Fellow at the Wits School of Governance said.