Ken Borland

Cricket South Africa company secretary Welsh Gwaza has been suspended by the interim board pending a disciplinary hearing and the allegation that he has paid his former employers Bowmans Gilfillan millions of rands over the last five months could well be one of the examples of maladministration used to fire him.

CSA have released a statement saying they have delivered a notice of disciplinary hearing to Gwaza regarding various allegations of misconduct against him. December 14 has been set as the date of the hearing.

Gwaza is mentioned several times in the Fundudzi Forensic Report and is accused of withholding crucial information from the then-Board over the improper Global Sports Commerce and Tinanati deals that could end up costing CSA millions of rand, and the step-in into the affairs of the Western Province Cricket Association over the Newlands development.

But insiders have told The Citizen that Gwaza has lost the trust of the interim board due to his dealings with Bowmans, who have recently had their services as legal advisors terminated.

“Gwaza has apparently spent R6 million in the last five months on Bowmans, including R1.2 million on a review of the Fundudzi Report that cost R4 million to implement. That led to the advice not to make the report public and to not recognise the interim board. There are also questions over whether he tried to get the report sanitized to protect himself.

“Either way, he has obstructed the interim board, misled the previous board and not informed them of key facts. So there could be an element of dishonesty involved, but what is certain is that his relationship has irretrievably broken down with the interim board. The previous board allowed him to become so powerful that he was the internal auditor, the head of legal and the chief operating officer,” one insider told The Citizen on Wednesday.

There have also been allegations that Gwaza has been manipulating the appointment of independent directors to the board.

Thabang Moroe and Naasei Appiah, Gwaza’s two allies in the CSA executive, have already been dismissed due to the findings of the Fundudzi Report.

CSA have also announced that through their recently appointed attorneys, Dingley Marshall, they have terminated the services provided by public relations independent contractor, PR Worx, with immediate effect. They have also delivered a notice of breach to their outsourced human resources service provider, People Link, due to the various procedural irregularities that took place when Chantel Moon was appointed by Moroe. The Fundudzi Report revealed that Moon lacks CSA’s minimum qualification requirements for the HR position. People Link has been afforded 48 hours to remedy the breach by appointing a properly-qualified representative.