CSA suit’s abrupt departure raises questions

TMG Digital

TELFORD VICE in London

CRICKET South Africa’s (CSA) compliance head, Lindiwe Ndziba, has resigned with immediate effect in the wake of being asked to re-apply for her position.

Her departure, and its abrupt manner, will be taken as a sign that things are again not as they should be at the often troubled organisation.

An email from CSA’s executive support officer, Sipho Rihlamvu, landed after 5pm on Monday to inform staff of Ndziba’s resignation and that it “took effect on Monday 11 March, 2019”.

TMG Digital understands that Ndziba’s decision may have been prompted by her failure to retain her position after re-applying for it.

A CSA spokesperson confirmed that she had been asked to re-apply, but not that she had lost the job in the process.

“HR has not given us any clarity on that,” the spokesperson said of the latter. “Such matters are confidential and we’re only notified when a new appointment is made.”

Contacted by TMG Digital on Friday, Ndziba declined to comment beyond saying she had left CSA.

Described by various sources as “feisty”, “very competent” and “someone you could talk to”, Ndziba’s appointment was itself the result of a tempest that began brewing in late 2016.

That was when chief financial officer Naasei Appiah laid a complaint against then chief executive Haroon Lorgat over the lack of black African women in executive positions at CSA.

If that sounds off kilter it’s because Lorgat, though not without his faults, was a vocal proponent of transformation.

By July 2017 Ndziba, formerly of accounting heavyweights Deloitte, where she had worked on high profile accounts in the United Kingdom and in South Africa, was CSA’s head of compliance.

Lorgat left in September 2017 under the cloud of his, the board said, mishandling of the planning for a T20 tournament that was inaugurated in November and December — a year late and at estimated losses of R120-million — as the Mzansi Super League.

So Thabang Moroe, who made the leap from serving as CSA’s vice-president to succeed Lorgat, might want to watch his back.

Not only did Lorgat’s tenure come to a sticky end, he had replaced Gerald Majola, who was sacked for his role in R4.7-million in bonuses not being properly declared to CSA’s governance structures.

Thanks to the close alliance he has formed with Appiah, who is also CSA’s acting chief operating officer, Moroe is on fairly solid ground.

For now: in October Moroe told parliament that CSA had projected losses of R654-million over the following four years.

He didn’t hazard a guess at how many chief executives might come and go in that time.