Ken Borland

Cricket South Africa’s Members Council and Sascoc are likely to discover on Monday what punishment sports minister Nathi Mthethwa is going to hit them with after the stunt they pulled at the weekend’s Special General Meeting of the cricket body, leading to the new Memorandum of Incorporation designed to improve governance not being passed.

In a clearly orchestrated move, Sascoc president Barry Hendricks was parachuted into the SGM, having earlier turned down an invitation to just be an observer, and then delivered a prepared address that basically warned the Members Council that Sascoc would cancel their membership if they went ahead with the amendments to their constitution.

Hendricks had explicitly been warned by Mthethwa, in a letter last week, to not interfere with the process, and now he and Members Council acting president Rihan Richards have been called to a meeting with the minister on Monday.

“You cannot believe how annoyed the Minister is,” sources close to Mthethwa told The Citizen on Sunday.

A statement released by the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture on Sunday said the minister was disappointed the Members Council had acted “in bad faith” and he has been left with “no further option but to exercise his rights in terms of Section 13 (5) of the Sports Act” and he “will be taking the necessary steps required to exercise his rights in terms of the law”.

It is likely that he will tell CSA that they are no longer recognised by the Department of Sport, which would lead to them being unable to play any international cricket.

The Interim Board, having failed to win over the recalcitrant Members Council, now only remains in name and will prepare their final report for Mthethwa, their term of office having ended with the SGM at the weekend. It is believed several directors have decided to take no further part in cricket’s affairs.

Cricket South Africa, already in troubled financial waters before the Members Council/Interim Board impasse, will now be in dire straights because leading sponsors and broadcasters are already believed to be preparing to jump ship. One official with knowledge of CSA’s financial situation said a ban on the Proteas would probably mean the organisation would be bankrupt and unable to run the game before the start of next season.

The conspirational – and successful – efforts of the Cricket South Africa Members Council to block the new Memorandum of Incorporation proposed by the Interim Board were on full display on Saturday when the Special General Meeting called to pass the amendments and end the impasse in the sport’s governance was made open to the media.

That the Members Council were not actually going to embrace change and elevate the administration of cricket into the modern era was clear from the very beginning. The scheming began with Eastern Province president Donovan May, whose time on the gravy train extends through all of the governance crises of the last decade, trying to stop the meeting before it even began by pointing out they could not proceed until all 14 provincial presidents had logged on to the virtual platform. Gibson Molale of Northern Cape is believed to have been the late arrival.

May interrupted again during the address of Interim Board chair Dr Stavros Nicolaou to point out that Sascoc president Barry Hendricks, who Nicolaou had invited as an observer, should not have been invited unless he was allowed to have a voice. Hendricks had apparently turned down the invitation because of this, but then suddenly joined the meeting 35 minutes after it had started.

Following sports minister Nathi Mthethwa’s address in which he urged the Members Council to “not let us down as a country” and “consider the implications of choosing the wrong way”, Tebogo Siko of Northerns then proposed that Hendricks be allowed to speak.

Nicolaou questioned whether it was good governance to change the agenda during the meeting, but the Members Council agreed to let Hendricks speak. The Sascoc president then firmly stated that CSA could not go ahead with the amendments without them being passed by Sascoc first, clearly going against the wishes of Mthethwa for the CSA issue to finally be resolved.

Although the Interim Board announced earlier that the Members Council had agreed to the new MoI, there had been whispers during the week that they were trying to get Sascoc involved because their constitution is at odds with having a majority of independent directors on the board.

Mthethwa responded by saying Sascoc had failed to deal with the matter in the first place and had asked him to intervene. “We cannot reverse now. We want to see this process go smoothly, with no opposition and no obstruction. May cricket be the winner,” the minister said before taking his leave.

And then it was put to the vote, when the blockers of change were really revealed, because they were the ones who actively opposed a public vote. May asked if there could be a secret ballot, Interim Board member Haroon Lorgat called for transparency and a show of hands. Anne Vilas was the only provincial president who spoke out for transparency, with John Mogodi (Limpopo), Daniel Govender (KZN), Molale and Simphiwe Ndzundzu (Border) being vocal in supporting May’s call for a secret ballot.

Members Council acting president Rihan Richards then said secret ballots are “standard practice and nothing new”, which sums up exactly why CSA have been in a mess for so long, before the motion for non-transparency was passed.

The proposed amendments were not passed, with only six of the 14 presidents being in favour of a majority independent board and five in favour of an independent chair. Astonishingly, given the gravity of the issue, there were three abstentions in the first vote and four for the second amendment. But that also sums up the calibre of leadership on CSA’s Members Council.