Ken Borland

While sports minister Nathi Mthethwa praised Cricket South Africa on Friday for the establishment of their Social Justice and Nation-Building (SJN) project, he also used the launch as a convenient time to call for the organisation to release the forensic report into fired former CEO Thabang Moroe and called for the election of fresh leaders at the AGM on September 5.

CSA on Friday announced that Advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza, a man of significant stature who has served as an acting judge, a Truth and Reconciliation commissioner and is a sought-after legal academic overseas, will be the ombudsman and face of SJN. They also announced nine ambassadors who will help foster the transformation and nation-building objectives of the project in their communities – former Proteas Dinesha Devnarain, Shandre Fritz, Gary Kirsten, Lance Klusener, Marcia Letsoalo, Nulubabalo Ndzundzu, Makhaya Ntini, Geoff Toyana and Monde Zondeki.

The good news of the SJN launch followed the day after Moroe was formally fired with immediate effect by CSA, having been suspended since early December. The CSA Board have refused to make public, even to their own Members Council, the forensic report upon which Moroe’s verdict of being guilty of misconduct was based, but Mthethwa said on Friday in an online address that he expects the organisation to table the report when they meet with him next week.

Many critics believe the CSA Board don’t want to release the report because they are implicated in the same wrongdoing for which Moroe was dismissed.

“I am pleased with the move to establish the SJN project, it is a step in the right direction in the fight for transformation and they heave heard the cries of their ex-cricketers and listened to people like former president Ray Mali on how hurt he is about cricket. This will fight any sort of exclusion, South Africa is so rich in talent but we are not employing our full capacity.

“But when we meet next week for me to respond to CSA’s turnaround plan and the corrective steps they are going to take for the challenges they are facing, I also expect them to share with me and government the forensic report they promised last year to show me when it was available. I look forward to that and then the AGM is in CSA’s hands.

“But the leaders elected should be beyond reproach. Government would frown upon people being elected with questionable credentials. There is a cloud gripping cricket and they definitely need to make a clean move away from that. I would not be happy with a process that is opposed to that,” Mthethwa said.

The irony of a government minister saying CSA should not elect leaders of dubious integrity was exacerbated by where the launch was held, which will also be the location of the ombudsman’s office – Olympic House – the home of Sascoc, themselves embroiled in numerous governance scandals.

Nevertheless, Dr Eugenia Kula-Ameyaw, the CSA independent director in charge of transformation, had reason to be enthusiastic about the new body they have rapidly formed in response to the racial storm that has tarnished South African cricket. But despite the impressive figure in charge of SJN and the good intentions shown on Friday, the power that will determine the success of SJN, and whether it will actually improve the lot of future marginalised cricketers, lies with the CSA Board.

“The ombudsman will recommend to the Board what action should be taken, but the aim of the SJN is to engage, heal and restore. If we are mature enough then we can find something positive out of what is revealed, we do not want a legalistic approach. We will be looking at legacy issues and the lessons from the ombudsman will inform how we move forward. “We will support transformation in the rural areas, aggressively, and it’s all about how we make sure those issues do not happen again. The SJN will be integrated with the transformation committee, but as someone said, our future cricketers are not born to be part of what failed. This time around we really will transform and we have to make sure that it is not just on paper but seen on the field,” Kula-Ameyaw said.

A trio of exciting talents topped the leaderboard after the second round of the African Bank Championship at Glendower Golf Club on Thursday, with Jayden Schaper, Danie van Tonder and Martin Rohwer all tied on seven-under-par as the second event in the Rise Up Series heads into the final round on Friday.

Jaco Ahlers is obviously also very much in contention after he fired the round of the day, a four-under-par 68, to climb into fourth place on six-under, just one stroke behind. And the experience and skills of Darren Fichardt (-5), the winner last week at Killarney, Neil Schietekat (-5), Jake Roos (-4) and George Coetzee (-4) also cannot be discounted.

The combination of a top-class course with slick winter greens and the vagaries of a blustery wind made for a particularly tough test in Edenvale on Thursday, and overnight leader Rohwer could only follow up his brilliant 65 on the first day with a level-par 72. That allowed Van Tonder and Schaper, who both shot two-under 70s, to catch him.

“It got tough out there with the wind blowing at about 30km/h and the greens are slick too. You’ve got to pick your lines carefully and not always go for the flags otherwise you open yourself up for three-putts. It’s about hitting fairways and greens, you’ve got to stick with your selection of club, hit it as hard as you can and just hope it goes on. With the gusts you’ve got to time it correctly,” Van Tonder said after roaring out of the blocks with four birdies on the front nine but then coming home in 38.

Rohwer regained the lead with an eagle at the par-five 15^th, but then three-putted the last to slip back to seven-under. Nevertheless, the 27-year-old from Kloof Country Club was pleased with a day of solid ball-striking.

“I was really solid today from tee-to-green, I felt like I had control of the ball all through the round, but I just struggled on the greens. That three-putt on the last leaves a sour taste, but to be level-par with the conditions we were playing in, that’s not too bad. You were just not sure what the wind was doing so it was difficult to hit your numbers,” Rohwer said.

The winner of the Royal Swazi Open last year says he is up to the challenge posed by both the conditions and the likes of playing partner Van Tonder, who was on the charge early on in the second round.

“Sometimes you just have to play more conservatively, but there is still a fair share of opportunity out there. The wind is mostly across though and, with where the pins are located, it’s difficult to get close. It’s supposed to be windy again tomorrow, but I look forward to a third round in a row with Danie. I knew I was playing well today so I wasn’t too concerned about falling behind,” Rohwer said.

The 19-year-old Schaper showed enormous maturity as he held his round together after an up-and-down start in which he had two bogeys, a birdie and an eagle in the first five holes, before dropping successive shots around the turn.

“There was a lot more wind today, so it was a bit tougher, and the pins were all tucked in on the front nine, so I didn’t make a good start. I only hit three fairways in my first 12 holes and made a couple of three-putts, so I really put myself under pressure. But the back nine is much more accessible, I pulled myself together and finished well,” Schaper said.

But the hulking figure of Ahlers, who has won nine times on the Sunshine Tour, looms large, especially with the way he simply overpowered the par-fives on Thursday, collecting eagles on both the eighth and 15^th holes, and birdieing the 13^th.

Cricket South Africa on Thursday officially parted ways with their chief executive Thabang Moroe, announcing that he has been fired with immediate effect for serious misconduct, but the size of his misdemeanours is only likely to be revealed in the coming months as the dismissed administrator’s legal team have already indicated they will fight his axing in court.

CSA’s brief statement on Thursday said the “decision was based on expert external legal opinion supported by the findings emanating from an independent forensic investigation” but they gave no details of what exactly Moroe had done wrong. And the CSA Board have already rebuffed requests for the forensic report to be made public, including from their own Members Council, which is scheduled to elect a new Board on September 5.

Many believe the report implicates the Board in many of the things Moroe has been punished for, a perception his legal team have supported.

At the time of his suspension, way back in December, Moroe had presided over a huge deterioration in CSA’s relationships with key stakeholders such as the players’ union, sponsors and media. He was also accused of excessive credit card spending and procurement irregularities.

The forensic investigators, Fundudzi Forensic Services, interviewed a range of stakeholders before submitting their report in May, since when CSA have supplied numerous different excuses for not finalising the matter more timeously.

Tellingly, Moroe did not avail himself of the opportunity to be interviewed by Fundudzi, a point CSA were quick to highlight in their statement on Thursday.

“Mr Thabang Moroe was offered sufficient opportunity to provide representations to the independent forensic auditors and to the Board regarding the allegations of misconduct, which opportunity he failed and/or refused to utilise,” the statement read.

Moroe’s legal team are likely to include this in any legal action they take, given that they also targeted the chairperson overseeing his disciplinary hearing, demanding that they be replaced by an independent figure.

As much as the CSA Board may now believe the Moroe matter is done and dusted, there are numerous parties who are determined to ensure the forensic report is made public, and the axed CEO will certainly be using it in his defence. The behaviour of the CSA Board will then be in the spotlight.

Cricket South Africa are hopeful that club cricketers will be able to return to training in the next month or two, which will be excellent news for the many people who are employed in that sphere even though it is strictly speaking amateur sport.

CSA cricket services manager Eddie Khoza told The Citizen that amateur cricket was very much part of their planning because they were well aware that many people earned a living from the game at that level, and that the grassroots are the foundation of the game.

“At the moment only professional teams have been given permission to play by government and that under strict regulations. But as part of our scenario planning, CSA have implemented a phased approach for the amateur game because it also provides a lot of employment i.e. private coaches. And if we don’t, by the time we get to Level I there might not be any clubs to get back to.

“But the medical protocols required to play at the moment are not really affordable for amateur teams. Which is why we applied for one-on-one coaching in Level III and in Level II five players and a coach are allowed. Hopefully in September/October we can start pre-season activities, by October we can be having a really thorough pre-season for clubs, schools, universities, and we would like all matches to commence on January 1, 2021,” Khoza said.

Amateur cricketers can breathe easy that CSA have not forgotten about them, but they are also trying to ensure that the thousands of club and school cricketers stay safe as well.

“The medical advice we have received is that in order to play competitive cricket again, the players need six-to-eight weeks of training, so October to December will allow that. Many schools and universities have anyway already said that they won’t be having any extramural activities for the rest of the year,” Khoza added.