The previous Cricket SA (CSA) board, which resigned en masse in October, and the incumbent interim board have a similar trait in common – they have no regard for good governance.
When minister Nathi Mthethwa appointed the CSA interim board at the end of October, a week after Chris Nenzani and Beresford Williams finally heeded the public and private calls to step down for plunging the organisation into a never-ending governance crisis, there was only a faint light at the end of a long and dark tunnel of hopelessness.
The interim board waltzed in, talked tough, promised heaven and earth, and cricket-mad South Africans started to see that light grow brighter.
The first warning sign was when CSA’s interim board suspended company secretary Welsh Gwaza in December without a board resolution.
The cricket community and public in general thought the interim board would usher in a new era of transparency, accountability and good governance.
Little did they know the light they were seeing was in fact that of a goods train speeding straight at them.
No-one is opposed to weeding out bad seeds at the organisation. But in doing so, due processes must be followed to avoid potentially damaging litigation. The state of our cricket is dire, and that is largely because of bad governance.
The first warning sign was when CSA’s interim board suspended company secretary Welsh Gwaza in December without a board resolution. That was irregular.
The second warning light flickered when the interim board did the same to Kugandrie Govender, the first woman to lead CSA in the organisation’s history, suspending her on December 14 without following procedures stipulated in the CSA disciplinary code.
Govender filed for unfair dismissal and was last week reinstated as acting CEO by the CCMA on a technicality.
If accountability and transparency existed in the interim board’s vocabulary, it would have told the public this technicality was in fact it having no regard for due process.
Govender reported for duty on Monday, but not without another bungle from the interim board.
Her return to office lasted only a few hours before she was sent packing again. While preparing to brief the executive committee and staff, Govender was told by the interim board to return to her previous role as chief commercial officer. This despite the CCMA reinstating her in the position of acting CEO.
The interim board had already started drafting its second notice of suspension against Govender – but this time following due processes. Insiders this week told Sunday Times Daily a second suspension notice had already landed in Govender’s inbox and an announcement was imminent.
Essentially, the interim board suspending Govender for the second time – this time adhering to the CSA disciplinary code – is an acknowledgment on its part that it flouted the rules the first time around.
When fellow interim board members Omphile Ramela and Xolani Vonya highlighted the irregularities in the suspension of the company secretary, the two youngest directors were banished and cast out as troublemakers.
Vonya threatened legal action and was reinstated, while Ramela was removed. Ramela has since filed papers in the high court to challenge his removal.
The controversial erstwhile interim board chairperson, retired justice Zak Yacoob, knows that the legal opinion he sought to check the legality of the removal of a director by fellow directors came back negative.
Given that the conduct of this interim board, packed with men and women who serve on other boards in their respective fields, is questionable, the members council, CSA’s highest decision-making body, should send them packing when their term expires on Thursday, February 15.
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