Mthethwa gives the thumbs up to CSA board to deliver the AGM

Sports Minister Nathi Mthethwa said on Friday that he has full confidence in the Interim Board of Cricket South Africa and their ability to deliver the AGM in the next couple of months.

The Interim Board appointed by Mthethwa has had to overcome numerous obstacles in their efforts to fulfil their mandate of making Cricket South Africa’s corporate governance fit for purpose, including legal challenges from dismissed directors and executives and the stepping down of their chairman, Judge Zak Yacoob, following his verbal abuse of a journalist.

“The Interim Board has not disappointed us, their initial appointment was for three months from October but we made provision to extend that and we are satisfied with the work they have done,” Mthethwa said in a virtual report-back session on Friday.

“The Interim Board understands the importance of transformation and they are not compromising on that. Some delays in their work have not been in their control, such as disciplinary processes.

“But I have full confidence in the Interim Board, they have been reporting to me and I am confident that the stance they have taken in disciplinary matters is according to the book, I have no fears about that. It is concerning though that there are these distractions that are trying to take our eyes off the ball. But I am glad that the Interim Board is consistently focused on the task at hand.”

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Dr Stavros Nicolaou, the new chairman of the board, committed the Interim Board to completing their work in the next two months.

“The implementation of the Nicholson recommendations are our most important task, to modernise, strengthen and enhance CSA’s governance,” Nicolaou said.

“Professor Michael Katz, the foremost expert on that, has been given the mandate for that and has shared an amended MoI with us. That needs to be agreed to by the Members Council at a special general meeting which we envisage happening in the first two weeks of March.

“That will provide the platform for us to go to the AGM, which we anticipate happening between April 10-17, when a new permanent board, and an appropriate gap between them and the Members Council, and a new era for cricket will be inaugurated. But we have no control over the timing of disciplinary processes, they are both objective and independent, and postponements and delays are not unexpected.”

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