Ken Borland

A hard-hitting letter from Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Nathi Mthethwa to Beresford Williams probably ices the cake in terms of sealing the fate of Cricket South Africa’s acting president, who has indicated his desire to stand for the permanent position at the AGM on December 5.

Williams was told by parliament’s sports portfolio committee to recuse himself from Tuesday’s hearing with CSA because he is implicated in the Fundudzi Forensic Report, not only for his involvement in a R5 million loan to the Western Province Cricket Association that he was formerly president of, but also being on the Board committee who appointed Thabang Moroe as full-time CEO in 2018 after he had been acting for a year despite him not meeting the minimum requirements for the post.

But Williams’ shares have fallen even further with the leaking of a letter from sports minister Mthethwa, who is clearly adamantly against Williams continuing as president. Replying to a letter from CSA, signed by Williams, which states that the CSA Board have decided not to step down and told Mthethwa he did not have the legal power to force them, the sports minister threatened: “As a parting shot, I wish to reiterate that I shall not be dissuaded from applying what the National Sport and Recreation Act 110 of 1998 enjoins me to do”.

The Mthethwa letter begins: “I note that instead of accurately depicting what was said at the meeting we had on 6 October, you have taken the liberty to put words into my mouth. To that end, I will use my response to correct some of the inaccuracies that are evident in your letter”.

Mthethwa went on to say he did not provide the directive for Williams and the Board to step down, but instead was agreeing with Sascoc’s call for this to happen.

“In addition to the National  Sport and Recreation Act 110 of 1998 you seem to selectively quote from, to show that I do not have the power to intervene, you are kindly reminded that as a sovereign country in which I am the Minister responsible for Sport, Arts and Culture, there is a raft of laws at my disposal, that empower me to deal effectively with recalcitrant behaviour within my portfolio,” Mthethwa stated.

The four main outcomes Mthethwa wants to see, according to his letter, are the full implementation of the Nicholson Commission recommendations, the appointment of a new, stable Board, effective transformation and the correct handling of the Fundudzi Forensic Report.

Apart from telling Mthethwa he did not have the power to force the Board to step down, CSA also said they viewed his intervention as government interference which probably “jeopardises CSA’s continued membership of the ICC”.

The bad news for CSA and Williams is that Mthethwa has the power to no longer recognise them as a national federation, thereby making their membership of the International Cricket Council moot in any case.

Cricket South Africa delegates Beresford Williams, the acting president, and Welsh Gwaza, the company secretary, met their match on Tuesday when they were instructed to leave the virtual meeting with parliament’s sports portfolio committee because they have both been implicated in the Fundudzi Forensic Report, and there could be similarly bad news for former president Chris Nenzani and the remainder of the Board, including those who have already jumped ship.

CSA met with the portfolio committee on Tuesday to discuss the findings of the complete Fundudzi Report, which had been given to the parliamentarians on Friday, although it was patently obvious that very few of the politicians had actually bothered to read the report.

A summary of the report has already accused Williams of a conflict of interest in a R5 million loan from CSA to the Western Province Cricket Association, of which he was the former president. Gwaza was alleged to have misled the Board in the multi-million rand deal with Global Sports Commerce, assuring them due diligence had been done on the company and they had a bank guarantee, neither of which was true.

But new revelations emerged on Tuesday, including a potential bombshell that Nenzani had under-reported to the Board the size of a grant from the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture.

Marius Schoeman, the independent director who chairs the audit and risk committee and led CSA’s presentation on Tuesday, said “We would like to understand why Mr Nenzani gave us a different number, there is a discrepancy because the honourable MP has given a higher number for the grants here today”.

It also emerged that fired former chief executive Thabang Moroe had been appointed without meeting the minimum requirements for the vital post, as Schoeman acknowledged. The makers of that decision by the Board included Williams, Nenzani and already-departed directors such as Louis von Zeuner, Mohamed Iqbal Khan, Dawn Mokhobo and Thando Ganda.

“It is correct that the CEO was appointed without meeting the minimum requirements,” Schoeman, who was elected to the board last year, conceded.

Partly because of how poorly prepared the sports portfolio committee were to interrogate CSA, the federation seemed to have mended some fences with the parliamentarians, especially with their willingness to engage the services of Sascoc in an advisory capacity as they look to implement the full recommendations of the Nicholson Commission and restructure the composition of their Board to ensure there is not as much crossover between it and the Members Council.

Cricket South Africa independent director Dr Eugenia Kula-Ameyaw has already caused controversy with her access to the organisation’s funds and now it has emerged that her Social Justice and Nation-Building initiative launched with much fanfare and cost on August 28 is yet to get off the ground.

Kula-Ameyaw, who was appointed – not elected – as a temporary, non-executive independent director in May, placed an advertisement in a Sunday newspaper without Board nor executive approval, costing the cash-strapped organisation R521 000.

While she seems to have escaped any censure for that impropriety, she was reported to the Board’s Social and Ethics Committee last month for tweets that were critical of sponsors Momentum.

Kula-Ameyaw has been the driving force behind SJN, an independent complaints system headed by ombudsman Advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza that was meant to ensure transformation programmes are impactful and would also be in charge of a restoration fund for those previously discriminated against. Nine ambassadors, all high-profile former players, were also appointed.

But according to one of the ambassadors, who did not want to be named, they are still in the dark as to what SJN is meant to do and what their role in the initiative will be.

“We’ve had one Zoom meeting in which we were introduced to Dr Eugenia Kula-Ameyaw and the advocate but it has not been pinpointed exactly what we are meant to do. The meeting lasted about 30 minutes and we were confused because we all want to know what our roles are. This was in the first week of September and they said they would get back to us.

“But we are still in limbo. We think they will ask us how we work out who has been discriminated against, but I guess it’s still early days,” the ambassador told The Citizen.

A request was sent to CSA on October 7 for an update on the SJN initiative’s progress. But despite being promised a response by noon the following day, and then by the end of last week, CSA have still not provided any update.

CSA did respond to a question on Kula-Ameyaw’s social media indiscretion and whether the Board’s Social and Ethics committee were going to take action by saying, “The matter is receiving the necessary attention from our Social and Ethics Committee. Once all internal processes have been followed and completed, the appropriate steps will be taken.”

Despite being one of the newest directors on the board, Kula-Ameyaw was tipped to become the lead independent director when elections are held at the AGM on December 5, but her recent slip-ups may well cause the Members Council to pause for thought about electing her.

Parliament’s sports portfolio committee duly received the full Fundudzi Report into the forensic affairs of Cricket South Africa on Friday, but not without having to go through legal gymnastics such as signing a non-disclosure agreement.

The members of the committee could get some decent weight training in if they print out the 486-page report and lug it around over the weekend. CSA were scheduled to meet again with the sports portfolio committee early next week, but depending on how much weekend leisure time the politicians are willing to give up, that could well be postponed given how long it will take to study the report properly.

A summary of the report was released to the media and other stakeholders, but not to parliament, by Cricket South Africa earlier in the week, much to the ire of the sports portfolio committee. They demanded that the full, unredacted report be given to them by close of business on Friday and CSA have complied.

While the summary focused on the failures and misdeeds of former CEO Thabang Moroe, it has caused a legal kerfuffle elsewhere in terms of some of the other names that were mentioned. CSA have been at pains to point out that the report has not been tested in court and is only the opinion and recommendations of the Fundudzi investigators. But already the other people named such as CSA human resources director Chantel Moon and parliamentary liaison officer Unathi Tshotwana, who has allegedly been exposed as being Service Provider X, have been tarnished without being given the opportunity to respond.

CSA issued a statement on Friday evening saying they had asked the chairperson of the sports portfolio committee, Beauty Dlulane, to declare the report as confidential.

“CSA has noted the public statement by the chairperson of the PPC to the effect that the PPC will sign a non-disclosure agreement in respect of the forensic report.  As such, and in accordance with the recommendation of the relevant Parliamentary Senior Legal Adviser, CSA has requested the chairperson of the PPC to make a ruling in terms of the relevant provisions of the Rules of the National Assembly, declaring that the forensic report is a confidential document.

“As publicly stated by CSA on various occasions and public platforms, the contents of the forensic report are confidential at this stage because it is a provisional report, because aspects of the report are subject to further investigation, and because public dissemination of the report at this stage may impair the integrity of the investigation process and undermine the implementation of remedial steps by CSA. It is for these reasons that CSA has, at this stage, released to the media a summary of the report, recording the substance of the provisional findings,” the statement said.

The full report, unlike the summary which was put together by CSA’s lawyers Bowmans, was sent to parliament directly by Fundudzi, so there should not be any redactions.

CSA did add that they would be consulting with Sascoc with a view to giving their president the report on the same basis as the sports portfolio committee.

But don’t expect any huge revelations to be coming out on social media over the weekend, because the lawyers have held sway.