“Obviously there’s no going back on the MOI, and we are continuing to the AGM on June 12.” - Judith February, CSA interim board member
Telford Vice | Cape Town
BOLSTERED by government support and backed by legal opinion, CSA remains on track to implement the provisions of its modernised constitution despite attempts by the country’s sports confederation to force it to back down.
On Saturday the general council of the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) met. And huffed and puffed and resolved to reject the memorandum of incorporation (MOI) CSA adopted on April 28 to put into action at its next annual meeting, which is to be held on or before June 12.
SASCOC has the authority to suspend, fine or expel members that don’t toe its line. CSA, like every federation in the country, must by law be a SASCOC member and abide by its rules. Now what?
“Obviously there’s no going back on the MOI, and we are continuing to the AGM on June 12,” Judith February, a member of CSA’s interim board, told Cricbuzz on Monday. “We’ve had no formal interaction with SASCOC post the amendments to the MOI. We had representation at the meeting on the weekend, but we’re very comfortable that we are able to proceed to the AGM and proceed to the appointment of a majority independent board. So it doesn’t change anything from our perspective in terms of the timelines that we’ve outlined to get to the MOI.”
Previously CSA’s board of 12 directors had to include seven representatives from the members council — South African cricket’s highest authority, which is made up of the presidents of the 14 provincial unions and associates. A council member also had to chair the board. In future, thanks to the new MOI, the board will feature a majority of independent members and be led by an independent.
The lack of oversight baked into the previous model, with its incestuous twin centres of power, spawned a slew of governance failures. Among the earliest of them, the improper distribution of bonuses paid to CSA in recognition of its successful hosting of the 2009 IPL, led to an investigation by a retired judge, Christopher Nicholson, who recommended a majority independent board. That was in 2012, and the members council has since found ways to weasel out of instituting the reforms even as the governance calamities have multiplied unchecked.
But matters took a decisive turn in November, when government stepped in to convince the elected board to resign and helped establish the interim board — all to drag CSA towards a majority independent board. Finally, the suits have run out of road. At least, they will when CSA elects a board in accordance with the redesigned MOI.
“The interim board’s position is that we were given a mandate to implement Nicholson,” February said. “We’ve done that by amending the MOI, which was supported unanimously by the members council [after its initial opposition].” February said the restructure put the game “in line with good governance in South Africa and around the world”.
SASCOC does not agree, doubtless because it is implacably wedded to non-independence: only two of its directors are independents. Unsurprisingly SASCOC, like CSA, has been besmirched and bedevilled by governance scandals facilitated by cronyism, fuelled by greed, and perpetuated by the elevation of administrators of limited ability and questionable credibility.
Both organisations have become emblematic of the kind of corruption and mismanagement that mushroomed in many areas of South African society under the presidency of Jacob Zuma, which endured from May 2009 to February 2018. Zuma is now the focus of criminal investigation and a judicial commission of inquiry.
Similarly, the tide is turning in cricket after years of financial and ethical disasters. Cricbuzz understands CSA, on top of having sports minister Nathi Mthethwa’s support, has obtained legal opinion that says it cannot be stopped from electing its board in terms of its improved MOI.
People who would try to hamper that progress regardless of what is right and proper tend to be so used to getting away with what is wrong and improper that they have lost the ability — and the will — to tell the difference. Because what is right and proper does not suit their agenda.
SASCOC looks a lot like a haven for those people. If a federation like CSA escapes the cesspool, what is SASCOC’s relevance? And if it is irrelevant, why should it continue to exist? Answers on a shiver of desperation, please.
First published by Cricbuzz.
I could not agree more about the fundamental short comings of SASCOC highlighted in this article from a sports governance and management perspective. Its administration of high performance sport in SA in the last fifteen years has been lamentable to say the least. The actions of its Board of Members and senior executives during this time reveal a willful disregard for the core principles of King IV on governance and the Nicholson's Report recommendations for CSA in 2013. The entire organisation needs to be abolished by the Minister of Sport and a new one established as quickly as possible. Where the sporting and financial needs of the country's elite sportsmen and women are permanently at the centre of its vision and values!. Wishing CSA every success with implementation of its new MOI in June 2021. The road to its redemption in global cricket looks brighter already! Jeremy Evans: UCT: SA: