New CSA CEO Pholetsi Moseki on Chiefs, Cullinan — and astronomy

He readily admits he was never the biggest cricket fan, preferring to play and follow football, particularly his beloved Kaizer Chiefs.

In another life he also wouldn’t have minded being an astronomer, which would have allowed him to try and figure out the size of the universe – something that’s always interested him.

As it is, Pholetsi Moseki is a chartered accountant. And he’s now also the chief executive officer of Cricket South Africa – appointed permanently this week after serving in an acting role for the last 15 months.

It’s a position he never, in his wildest dreams, would have thought he’d fill.

“It’s weird how this all came about,” says Moseki. “As a child I played football in the streets and parks of Soweto in the 80s and 90s and didn’t even know about cricket. I loved Chiefs then, and I still do now, but they’ve broken my heart too many times. Now I’m all about cricket.”

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Falling in love with cricket

Moseki says it was a television advertisement of kids playing cricket in the street and a mom calling them inside just when it’s getting dark outside that got him interested in the game.

“You must remember that ad, I think it was by a bank … the kids answer the mom back, saying something about it being a day/night game. I loved it.

“Later, when I’d finished high school and was at home during the holidays, around 1994, 95, I got hooked on Test cricket because it gave me something to do, to watch. I remember my cousin visiting from KZN one time and he was a big cricket fan and explained the whole game to me; I’m so fortunate for that experience. That’s how I fell in love with it.”

Moseki, who is 45 and married with one son, remembers those days fondly.

“South Africa had only been back in the international game for a while and there was a lot of excitement about it. I enjoyed watching Daryl Cullinan, he was a bit full of nonsense, Gary Kirsten was the gentleman, Shaun Pollock was all class, and then much later Makhaya Ntini was the first real black superstar and that resonated with me. And Graeme Smith always impressed me, and Hashim Amla, too.

“Internationally, I loved watching Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar.”

But how did a passionate footballing fan and growing cricket supporter end up being a CA?

Dedicated teacher

“I have to go back to my first two years at high school in Soweto. Those were chaotic times in this country and on some days there were classes and other day there weren’t. Some teachers just weren’t interested in working, but for some reason my accounting teacher was at school every day and she was so passionate about the subject. She was young and brilliant and dedicated and I fell in love with accounting.”

Moseki later changed schools, moving from Soweto into a city centre school, and that’s where things started happening educationally. He’d later go to Wits “but that didn’t work out because I was still playful at that time” and then he finally graduated from Unisa. He did his articles at Deutsche Bank, where he worked for eight years.

In July 2019 Moseki joined CSA as Chief Financial Officer.

“It was just before the storm hit the organisation,” he said, referring to the problems in the administration.

Asked if running CSA had crossed his mind when he joined three years ago, he said, “No never. In another life I think I’d have chosen astronomy or architecture. I love buildings, especially those in Europe, and I find the universe fascinating. Those are the things that really interest me, but now they’re just hobbies.”

Well, figures and finances it is for Moseki, and he’s been trusted with steering the CSA ship, hopefully to much calmer waters than has been the case in the last few years.

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