Ken Borland

The former head of sales and sponsor relations, Clive Eksteen, has won his CCMA hearing against Cricket South Africa, who had their dismissal of the former Proteas spinner hit out of the park by the presiding officer.

Eksteen was suspended by CSA on October 29, 2019, along with head of cricket pipelines Corrie van Zyl and chief financial officer Naasei Appiah, and then fired in June for “transgressions of a serious nature”. Former CEO Thabang Moroe had initiated the suspension over the non-payment of Mzansi Super League image rights fees to the South African Cricketers’ Association.

But as the Fundudzi Forensic Report made clear, Moroe and Appiah were actually the ones responsible for the delay in payment and SACA were amongst the witnesses who exonerated Eksteen and Van Zyl. Nevertheless, CSA continued with the disciplinary hearing, with Eksteen’s then line manager Kugandrie Govender, who was then the chief commercial officer but is now the acting CEO, apparently driving the process.

Additional charges were laid against Eksteen that he sold a sponsorship deal to a multinational company for a lower amount than had been approved by the CSA Exco.

“No evidence was presented of Exco having mandated a final amount for the sponsorship; and my superior [Govender] in her evidence failed to mention that she had read a message from me to her, prior to the Exco meeting, in which I had told her of the current offer on the table from the sponsor,” Eksteen said in a statement he released after his dismissal.

Eksteen could not be reached for comment on Thursday, but other high-ranking officials have confirmed the CCMA has ruled in his favour.

Eksteen, who turned 54 on the day he received the good news, has been working in the media industry since his departure from CSA and is highly unlikely to accept his job back. It means CSA are now liable for a large damages claim, given that Eksteen’s dismissal has been found to be unfair and he suffered huge reputational damage as a result.

It is another blow to the cash-strapped, scandal-ridden organisation’s exco. Company secretary Welsh Gwaza was suspended by the interim board this week due to his misgovernance as revealed by the Fundudzi Report, and Govender could now also be in their sights given the costly botching of Eksteen’s disciplinary case.

Cricket South Africa’s Members Council announced on Thursday that they have declined to accept the interim board they themselves were part of compiling, sending them on a collision course with Minister of Sport Nathi Mthethwa.

The Members Council said in their statement that they will no longer recognise the interim board due to material differences between the two bodies in relation to conflicts of interest, lines of responsibility and accountability, and a breakdown in the relationship between the provincial presidents and the nine would-be directors that were agreed to during the negotiation process between CSA, the Minister of Sport, Sascoc and the South African Cricketers’ Association.

“The Members Council is not prepared to appoint the members of the proposed interim board to be directors of CSA in terms of the MOI. However, the Members Council will continue to work with the Minister, the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, and Sascoc on a collaborative basis to address and correct the ills of the past. The basis for the relationship between the parties is clearly prescribed by the law and requires mutual respect by all parties in complying with their obligations,” acting CSA president Rihan Richards said.

By threatening the Minister with legal proceedings, CSA could open themselves up to terrible consequences, including Mthethwa withdrawing their right to represent the country, thereby scuppering the England tour later this month, as well as the upcoming Tests against Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Australia. The financial damage to CSA would be devastating.

Unsurprisingly, CSA’s latest act of defiance has not gone down terribly well with the interim board.

Judge Zak Yacoob, the chairman of the interim board, issued a statement saying the “current situation was untenable” and that they were “determined to continue our work in the public interest and in the best interests of cricket in South Africa”.

“We are thus dismayed to be in receipt of what we can only describe as an obstructionist, legalistic letter from the Members’ Council while we have tried to put structures in place and hold individuals within CSA to account. We are of the view that the conduct of the Members’ Council is an attempt to stymie the work of our Board.

“The Board has been hard at work for the past two weeks since being mandated by the Minister to restore the credibility of CSA. It accepted this mandate publicly and with due care. The failures of corporate governance within Cricket SA are well-known and the cricket-loving public has watched Cricket SA lurch from crisis to crisis,” Yacoob said.

Sports Minister Nathi Mthethwa has already accepted that there is no way Cricket South Africa will be able to hold their AGM on December 5, but that does not mean the new interim board of directors he announced on Friday are there for a holiday.

Mthethwa tasked the interim board with completing their mandate within three months, although he did leave the door open for their term of office to be extended.

“The interim board need to hit the ground running and deal with the current governance and structural issues. They should aim to implement the Nicholson Commission recommendations, consider the Fundudzi Forensic Report and take the recommended action or whatever action they deem to be appropriate, review all board decisions made since 2019 and restore the integrity and reputation of CSA.

“They have three months to do this, but that may be extended based on their progress. We hope they will deliver because this group knows exactly what it has to do and the Members Council still has an obligation to ensure their work is moving well. But there is no way December 5 can remain as the date for their AGM, which could have been avoided if certain people had listened earlier,” Mthethwa said on Friday.

The new interim board of directors is chaired by Judge Zak Yacoob, a former justice of the Constitutional Court, and includes other ‘independent’ figures in Caroline Mampuru, the deputy head of the Special Investigative Unit, Stavros Nicolaou, a senior executive for a major pharmaceutical company, and Andile Dawn Mbatha, the chief financial officer of the Independent Electoral Commission.

But a trio of passionate cricket-lovers who have gone to town in recent times in their criticism of the organisation and the recently-resigned board have also found accommodation on the interim board.

The most astonishing appointment is that of Haroon Lorgat, who has been at the forefront of CSA’s critics and was the federation’s chief executive as recently as September 2017, before being deposed by the power bloc that included Thabang Moroe, whose tenure and subsequent suspension and firing have been central to CSA’s governance crisis. But Lorgat is an internationally-respected administrator who is a former CEO of the International Cricket Council and CSA was a stable organisation during his watch.

Omphile Ramela, the president of the South African Cricketers Association, has also been a strident critic of CSA on behalf of the players, while Judith February is a lawyer and governance expert for the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Institute for Security Studies, as well as a respected columnist who has also expressed her dismay over the administration of a sport she is clearly passionate about.

Andre Odendaal, the former CEO of the Western Province Cricket Association and the Cape Cobras, is another appointee, who has had a long history in the game as a first-class player, administrator and historian.

There is also a member of the old guard on the interim board in Xolani Vonya, the recently-resigned Easterns president who has been a strong supporter of both Moroe and company secretary Welsh Gwaza, who has been seen as a stumbling block to change at the organisation.

Vonya has been a controversial figure because the Easterns union have been wanting to get rid of him for many months, including holding a vote of no confidence against him, but Moroe and Gwaza gave him legal support to fight his removal.

Cricket South Africa announced on Tuesday the big news that both festive season Tests this season will be played on the Highveld, but what their press release left undisclosed was the reason for the New Years Test being shifted from Cape Town for the first time in more than a century.

Newlands has been the host every time South Africa has played a New Years Test at home since January 1, 1914, when England clinched their 5-match series with a 91-run win in the third Test, at the Old Wanderers.

But this Christmas, due to Covid-19 and the need to play in a biobubble, Sri Lanka will play the Boxing Day Test against the Proteas at SuperSport Park in Centurion starting on December 26, with the New Years Test beginning on December 3 at the new Wanderers Stadium.

The costs of setting up a biobubble for just one game in Cape Town were deemed to be too much, with Sri Lanka and the Proteas able to stay in the same place for their two Tests over the festive season, which makes financial sense, especially with no spectators expected to be allowed to attend. England are paying for a substantial portion of the biobubble for their white-ball series against South Africa in a month’s time, and they insisted on staying in Cape Town.

“It’s great for our brand and for our sponsors, so it’s a really great thing to be the host from that point of view, but we are sad that we won’t see any fans here at the Wanderers. We are thankful and excited that Cricket South Africa have chosen us as hosts. It certainly wasn’t something we planned for at the start of the year.

“But with the Boxing Day Test happening at Centurion, it means the players can stay and travel from the same place, plus Cape Town will have the England series. If even a reduced number of fans are given the go-ahead to attend then we will be ready to go. We’ve geared ourselves to be ready for whenever fans can return and all safety measures are already in place,” Jono Leaf-Wright, the CEO of the Central Gauteng Lions, told The Citizen on Tuesday.

While only the Proteas fixtures up to that second Test against Sri Lanka were confirmed on Tuesday, that is certainly not the sum total of their summer. CSA revealed that Australia and Pakistan would also feature during the summer.

Australia will arrive for three Tests in February/March, which will undoubtedly be the pinnacle of the season, while a Pakistan tour comprising three ODIs and three T20s will end the summer.

South Africa are also scheduled to tour Pakistan in January for the first time since 2007, with CSA saying a delegation leaves for the subcontinental country at the weekend to do a security assessment.

Fixtures

England tour – Friday, 27 November (18h00):1^st T20I Newlands, Cape Town; Sunday, 29 November (14h30):2^nd T20I Boland Park, Paarl; Tuesday, 1 December (18h00): 3^rd T20I Newlands, Cape Town; Friday, 4 December (13h00): 1^st ODI Newlands, Cape Town; Sunday, 6 December (10h00): 2^nd ODI Boland Park, Paarl; Wednesday, 9 December (13h00): 3^rd ODI Newlands, Cape Town.

Sri Lanka Tour – Saturday, 26-30 December (10h00): 1^st Test SuperSport Park, Centurion; Sunday, 3-7 January (10h00):2^nd Test Imperial Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg.