Nathi Mthethwa withdraws Section 13 notice against crisis-riddled Cricket SA

The department of sport has confirmed that sports minister Nathi Mthethwa has withdrawn the Section 13 notice that he invoked against Cricket South Africa (CSA) last week.

Mthethwa last week invoked his powers to deregister and defund CSA after the Members Council (MC) voted against amendments in the Memorandum of Incorporation (MOI‚ which serves as CSA’s constitution) to allow for restructuring of the organisation.

Over the past few days there had been developments with the MC and Interim Board (IB) confirming their unanimous decision to accept the new MOI by written resolution as contemplated by Section 60 of the Companies Act.

“Following several attempts to get CSA’s Interim Board (IB) and Members Council (MC) to agree on the contents of a revised Memorandum of Incorporation (MOI) as part of the Nicholson Report on the governance of the sport‚ minister Nathi Mthethwa‚ yesterday [Thursday]‚ signalled his decision‚ by way of a notice in the Government Gazette‚ to invoke s13(5)(i) and (ii) of the National Sport and Recreation Act‚ 2007(Act No. 18 of 2007).

“Shortly after the notice was published‚ a letter was received by the minister’s office‚ signed by both CSA’s acting president‚ Mr Rihan Richards‚ and IB chairperson Stavros Nicolaou‚ confirming the unanimous decision taken by the MC to accept the new MOI by written resolution as contemplated by Section 60 of the Companies Act.

Minister Mthethwa was quoted as saying: “As the sole purpose of my intervention into the affairs of CSA was to facilitate a negotiated solution in respect of governance best practice‚ I have‚ based on the confirmation from CSA’s acting president and IB chairperson‚ instructed my department to immediately initiate the requisite process to withdraw the notice.”

Mthethwa further reiterated his desire to bring his intervention to an end‚ with a final report from the Interim Board‚ while CSA proceeds to chart a revised road map towards an annual general meeting.