Ken Borland

Sascoc have written a letter to the ICC clarifying that they are not attempting a takeover of Cricket South Africa but have merely requested the sidelining of the CSA Board and certain executives as they look to assist a federation that has obviously been brought into disrepute and no longer enjoys the confidence of their many stakeholders.

The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee informed CSA this week that they were using their step-in rights to intervene in the governance crisis facing the union, leading to speculation that the move could amount to government interference and could lead to the suspension of the Proteas from international cricket because the ICC’s constitution forbids that.

But in an e-mail sent to the International Cricket Council on Saturday, Sascoc have explained their decision to appoint an independent task team to conduct investigations into the administrative, operational and/or financial affairs of CSA and have denied that it is government interference. They remind the ICC of the resignations of directors and that of acting CEO Jacques Faul, as well as CSA’s refusal to make the forensic report into the possible misconduct of their former chief executive, Thabang Moroe, available on an unrestricted basis.

“Given the litany of complaints that has plagued CSA … there can be no doubt that CSA has been brought into disrepute and that its standing amongst players and ex-players, the media, the public and, most importantly, its stakeholders such as sponsors and the government, has dramatically diminished, resulting in a loss of trust and confidence in the organisation.

“The task team will remain accountable to the Sascoc Board and the Members Council of CSA … . There is thus no attempt to place CSA under administration as has been reported. Cricket belongs to its Members and the Sascoc resolution does not disturb that arrangement. What the resolution requires is for the CSA Board and those senior CSA executives who serve it on an ex officio basis to step aside in order to facilitate the work of the task team,” the e-mail signed by acting president Aleck Skhosana said.

As a first step in darning the tear in the fabric of the game at present, Sascoc seem to want to work with the Members Council and their starting point is getting the forensic report released so all the provincial presidents can study it without stringent conditions ahead of an AGM that has been postponed but needs to happen before November 5.

“At no stage … did Sascoc act under the direction … of the Minister of Sport … Sascoc rejects any allegation … that the … intervention constitutes government interference. In this regard, we are quite prepared to meet with you and discuss this issue … to give you the assurance that the Sascoc intervention is a bona fide attempt to assist one of its members who clearly and desperately needs such assistance.

“CSA’s steadfast refusal to make the forensic report available is puzzling, as it appears that they are unable to self-correct if the report is not made available, not only to its own Members, but also to the media and public at large since it is a public document. CSA (like Sascoc) remains accountable to the public at large since we are public bodies … and are required to act in the public interest,” the e-mail to the ICC said.

CSA’s Board of Directors and the Members Council are meeting over the weekend, with the latter body hopeful that they will finally be able to interrogate the forensic report. In a statement released earlier, Sascoc called the failure to release the forensic report to the Members Council “irrational and unreasonable”.

“The Presidents that form the Members’ Council of CSA have similarly been denied unrestricted access to the forensic report. This is quite ridiculous. The Presidents act on a mandate from their respective boards. How are they expected to obtain a proper mandate from their boards when they are not permitted to share the contents of a report which they commissioned with the members of their board? That is why the refusal to make the report available on an unrestricted basis is both irrational and unreasonable,” Sascoc said.

Danie van Tonder has already won five times on the Sunshine Tour so he may not fall into the category of “rising star” in the classical sense, but the 29-year-old has lately been playing with the sort of consistency and maturity that suggests he could well be the next big South African golf export.

The winner of the African Bank Championship at Glendower Golf Club at the end of last month has finished in the top-10 of his last eight consecutive events on the Sunshine Tour and is currently in third place on the order of merit for the Rise Up Series that marked the return of professional golf. The last two events, at the ERPM Golf Club from September 23 and then the finale at Huddle Park the following week, will undoubtedly see him push for the title, and his eagerness to maintain the momentum he is currently enjoying was illustrated by his participation in the Big Easy IGT Tour’s event at Copperleaf this week. Of course Van Tonder notched another top-10 finish, claiming third place, just one stroke off making the playoff for the title.

What marks Van Tonder out as being different to so many other golf pros is his willingness to try different things; the mainstream is not necessarily the way for him. From the unorthodoxies of his swing to his diet to the fact that his wife has been on his bag for most of his career, the former number one amateur is his own man.

He says the consistency he is now enjoying is mostly down to the patience he has shown in just plugging away through a career that has seen some meteoric rises and some periods in the doldrums.

“I’ve always felt consistent about my game, I’m almost 30 now though, I’m a bit older and everything takes time. Being my own coach, a self-taught golfer with my wife helping me, I guess I am my own person and I have never been scared to try something new. Even if it works, I’ve never been scared to think outside the box. I’m not the cleverest cookie, but I would say I am smart.

“But that being said, my swing [which is remarkably stiff-armed] is still the same, to me it’s just back-and-through. It feels simple and I like to keep it as simple as possible because then there’s not much space for error. I’m not so focused on the technical side, I’m more of a feel player. I’ve always been good with my irons, I stick to the same set of Titleist 716 CBs for a while, it’s something I can work with without worrying about between all the gym and travel. But in the last four years it is my putting that has shown the most improvement,” the Sunshine Tour’s order of merit runner-up in both 2014 and last season says.

Europe surely beckons for Van Tonder, who last played regularly on that tour in 2015, finishing 145^th in the Race to Dubai to miss out on regaining his card. But with two top-10 finishes in co-sanctioned events in South Africa, as well as another three in Challenge Tour tournaments here, winning his card back on home soil is a strong possibility.

In February, at the Cape Town Open at Royal Cape GC, Van Tonder went into the final round leading by two strokes after rounds of 66 67 and 69, but he then faded into a tie for seventh with a 78.

But he believes there’s no need to try and be a superhero about it, a return to Europe will come when the time is right.

“Playing in Europe has always been the goal, but it’s been very hard to get over there with Covid, there are so many new rules. Plus you have to live in a bubble and not leave your hotel room. Next year things should be a bit better and I will just try and get more chances to play over there. Winning our order of merit will get me a few invites as well.

“But I just need to play more European Tour events, it’s no good just having four days to try and win your card, that’s very hit-and-miss, you need about 10 starts and then if you are consistent you get places on the order of merit. And my eight top-10s in a row show I can be consistent. It’s just a question of time, I feel,” Van Tonder says.

What is not in question is his hunger and work ethic; the Sasolburg-born golfer says he spends most of his ‘spare’ time with clubs either in his hands or very much on his mind.

“I like to practise a lot, when I’m lying on the couch I tend to think about practice. You do need to chill sometimes to take your mind off golf, and we do go to Durban to visit family. “But my wife Abigail and I are always together, 24/7, and I love it. She’s been on my bag for the last 7-8 years and she played when she was younger so it’s nice to have her as my caddy. She’s clever when it comes to golf and if I hit a few bad shots then she will ask me to ‘do this or do that’, things I don’t think about. She understands everything about the game,” Van Tonder says.

There is a massive irony in a body such as Sascoc, wracked by internal strife and lacking credibility, making an intervention in the affairs of Cricket South Africa, a federation that seems to daily provide a new definition of rock-bottom.

But one can only hope this is a rocket (a spark would have little effect on the thick-skinned people sitting on the CSA Board) that leads to a real shift in the mindsets of those arrogant directors that refuse to budge a centimetre from a place at the top table of a sport they have parasitized rather than served.

If Sascoc threatening to take over does not force the CSA Board into standing down and releasing the Fundudzi Forensic Report, then the next option has to be for them to be threatened with being declared delinquent directors. There have been a litany of governance disasters at CSA over the last couple of years and there is no way they can continue to deny their own involvement and culpability.

There is no doubt people like former CEO Thabang Moroe and company secretary Welsh Gwaza have been involved in malfeasance, but who appointed and enabled these self-serving charlatans? The directors did and they have failed in their fiduciary duties, which have a clear legal basis.

The Members Council and the CSA Board of Directors are meeting together in Johannesburg over the weekend and, as one delegate put it, this is “make-or-break” time for the organisation. Will selfish, individualistic priorities prevail and continue the death spiral into chaos and oblivion? Or will there finally be some leadership and accountability shown?

Either way, Sascoc are going to impose a task team inquiring into CSA’s affairs, which is no bad thing. But if leadership and accountability win the day then there are enough top-class people who love cricket who will be able to step into the leadership vacuum and help CSA back to stability.

One of those is Judith February, a lawyer based at the Institute for Security Studies, the former head of IDASA’s governance programme, a Visiting Fellow at the Wits School of Governance, a trustee of the Nelson Mandela Foundation and a massive cricket fan.

“You cannot be on a board and not take responsibility, resigning just before the AGM is too little, too late because they have presided over matters to that point. Directors have left in silence or written letters, but it was because they did not flex their muscles that Thabang Moroe was allowed to operate in that way. CSA’s Memorandum of Incorporation is very clear and they have breached it on every front.

“We can join the dots intelligently and see that there is something deeply wrong with the system and the people who manage it and the people who oversee them. A clean break is the best option and clearly we need to interrogate why someone of such integrity and capability as Jacques Faul could find no space to work in CSA. The players’ statement about the boardroom shenanigans was also really important,” February said this week in a Daily Maverick webinar discussing cricket in South Africa’s fight for survival.

Does February, a governance specialist and former executive director of the HSRC’s Democracy and Governance unit, not just sound like the perfect candidate to be an independent director on a new-look CSA Board?

There are also some brilliant, impressive people on the Members Council – one thinks of Ben Dladla, Craig Nel, Anne Vilas and Tebogo Siko – who are dong their best to restore the credibility of CSA, but their efforts are being stymied by the presence of seven directors of the Board in the 14-strong Members Council itself.

The Nicholson Inquiry, which the CSA Board have now committed to return to eight years after its release, called for change in how the Board was constituted, recommending nine of the 12 directors be independents.

But in 2013 it was the selfsame Sascoc who refused to accept that and pressured CSA (although it probably suited their Board back then too) into going with a 7-5 split in favour of non-independents. And that’s a major reason why CSA are in the mess they are in now.

Directors without the competence, skills or experience to run a billion-and business have been voted in to ensure certain powerful figures enjoy support and can dispense patronage in return. In some cases, these directors have been earning twice as much from Board fees as from their ‘main’ source of income; no wonder they are desperate to keep their noses in the CSA trough.

In the coming weeks, Sascoc have a vital role to play in supporting the efforts of those who want to change this system and put cricket back in the control of people who firstly love and serve the game, and secondly have the expertise to run it properly.

The Members Council ‘owned’ the Fundudzi Forensic Report auditing the affairs of Cricket South Africa in the wake of the suspension of then-CEO Thabang Moroe from the moment they commissioned it last December and they are hopeful that they will finally get to see it without onerous conditions this weekend.

CSA announced in the early hours of Friday morning that the CSA Board of Directors and the Members Council would hold “a joint workshop this weekend to discuss critical matters” and while their statement was in response to Sascoc’s intervention in their affairs revealed on Thursday evening, provincial presidents have confirmed to The Citizen that Saturday’s agenda includes a discussion of the forensic report, which was completed in June.

“We will all be under one roof and hopefully we will at least get a partial view of the report that we will dissect and analyse. I’m pretty sure the forensic report will be made available, or at least what can be made public knowledge will be. This weekend is really make-or-break time for Cricket South Africa, I believe. And then hopefully we will meet with Sascoc on Sunday,” a Members Council delegate told The Citizen on Friday.

According to a president of a major CSA affiliate, efforts to get the organisation, which has postponed the AGM they were meant to hold on September 5, back on track by allowing the Members Council to be informed of any other directors or staff implicated in the misgovernance which saw Moroe being formally dismissed last week, have been hampered by the seven Board members who also sit on the Members Council.

“I’m disappointed by the Members Council to be honest, we just seem unable to make a decision, some representatives are just going along with whatever the Board members say,” the president said.

“There are seven other members of the Members Council and three of them have been especially vocal, but there seems to be a very serious conflict of interest amongst the Board because some of them earn double what their normal income would be by being directors. It’s a flaw in the system but Sascoc are dealing with the Members Council as we look at our Memorandum of Incorporation as well.”

According to their constitution, CSA have to hold an AGM by November 5.