Cricket South Africa’s Members Council, said Tuesday that it wasn’t given sufficient time to consider all aspects of the administrative restructuring that was supposed to be agreed to be last Saturday’s Special General Meeting.
The Members Council - CSA’s most powerful decision making body comprising the 14 provincial presidents - said it only received a final draft of the new Memorandum of Incorporation from the Interim Board after midnight last Friday, giving them no time to get approval from their provincial affiliates before Saturday’s meeting at 3pm. The Council asked for a one week delay, to allow the presidents to consult with their provincial unions.
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“The refusal by the Interim Board to afford Members’ Council sufficient time to deliberate the final draft of the MOI with their respective affiliates was a catalyst to this impasse,” the Members Council stated on Tuesday. “The time span of less than 24 hours to consider such an important document is in our opinion unreasonable.”
At no point on Saturday during that special general meeting, also attended by the Interim Board and Sports Minister Nathi Mthethwa, did any of the provincial presidents raise the fact that the draft was received so late nor that they had insufficient time to consult about that draft. One president, Northern Cape’s Gibson Molale was late for the meeting, nearly leading to a postponement, but he didn’t site anything to do with the MOI as a reason for his late arrival, instead blaming a poor signal.
The MOI, essentially CSA’s constitution, needs to be changed in order to allow for a new board of directors the majority of whom would be independent. CSA’s Members Council had on April 10 agreed with Mthethwa that it would make the necessary changes. However at Saturday’s meeting where that was to take place, the Members Council couldn’t reach the 75% majority needed to enforce those changes.
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That led Mthethwa to state that he would be invoking his powers under Section 13 of National Sports and Recreation Act whereby he can remove funding from CSA and more crucially, remove recognition from the organisation, as the ruling authority of the sport in the country. That could be classified as government interference and lead to the International Cricket Council banning CSA. Thus the Proteas would no longer be able to tour or participate in ICC tournaments like the T20 World Cup later this year.
The Members Council on Tuesday also pointed out how it had raised its concerns with the Interim Board, appointed last October by Mthethwa, to implement changes at the organisation, that CSA could be in breach of the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee’s constitution, and that CSA needed Sascoc’s approval of its new MOI. “The Interim Board brashly disregarded this plea and indicated that the Minister would manage Sascoc,” the Members Council said Tuesday. “The Minister also said that the IB should disregard any governance document, legislation or provisions thereof that posed as a hindrance to their mandate.”
The Members Council states that by not voting for the new MOI it was making a “decision that placed the sport and its players first.
Differences remain between the Council and Interim Board about the number of independent directors, the fact that chairman of the new board should also be an independent, something the Council maintains is not contained in the Nicholson recommendations. The Members Council is also concerned that its authority as CSA’s highest decision making body will be usurped by the new board.