The Time Has Come For To Move On

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Image seen at: http://www.citizen.co.za/

South Africa - The last few weeks cricket has made the front page due to the external audit that was done on CSA financials. The story has seemed to have gone on an eternity but it seems that we are in the final stretch.

Cricket South Africa’s beleaguered chief executive Gerald Majola received nothing more than a reprimand from his board for a possible breach the Companies Act at its Annual General Meeting held in Port Elizabeth on Saturday.

Majola had been chided for failing to disclose bonuses he had received from the Indian Premier League (IPL) and International Cricket Council after South Africa hosted the 2009 IPL and Champions League.

In all honesty the result has not been surprising at all. I can honestly say that I expected it and expect that there will be a vote of no confidence in the President (Nyoka). Nyoka did not attend the board meeting over the weekend as it was chaired by the vice chairman AK Khan. I find the timing of that suspicious.

Neither of them are not guilty. Nyoka accused Majola of stealing money. The problem is a lack of disclosure and not following procedure.

“Gerald took our criticism very hard, but he also took it on the chin. We just want to move on from this.”
Cricket SA’s president, Mtutuzeli Nyoka, was not present due to family commitments at Friday’s board meeting nor Saturday’s annual meeting, where CSA announced profits before tax of R295, 6 million compared to the R138,8 million for the previous financial year. The final after tax profit amounted to R247,8 million.

It is understood that the hefty profits were what ultimately saved Majola from being axed as CEO, a position he has held for 10 years. “The profits of over R200-million counted in his favour,” an administrator said.
KPMG found four instances of possible irregular conduct with respect to the Companies Act and fiduciary duties of directors at the end of its forensic audit which was delivered to the board last month. That audit was tasked with looking into bonuses payments, among them R4,7-million which was paid to Majola and CSA’s senior administrative staff following the hosting of the IPL and Champions Trophy in 2009. KPMG did not pronounce on the guilt or innocence of Majola, instead recommending CSA seek advice from a Senior Counsel, which the federation did with help from Sascoc.

Among Bham’s recommendations, which weren’t outlined in CSA’s press release Saturday, was that Majola and CSA’s board of directors would go through a corporate governance course. The legal secretary, which CSA must appoint in the coming days, besides reviewing how bonuses would be paid in future would also be tasked with looking at all contracts the organisation signs in future. “The board felt we needed to strengthen our checks and balances,” said one director. “We felt we also stuffed up, that we could have done a better job on our watch.”

With all of the above in mind. The time has come for both gentleman to move on. Majola who was not the initial candidate to take over from Ali Bacher needs to be commended for securing CSA's financial future and an ensuring very profitable relations with the BCCI and with various sponsors. I am in no way saying he did nothing wrong but I believe that the public has gotten one side of this story. So get the man an exit strategy as the reputational damage that has been done to CSA is ten times the value of the monetary values claimed to have been stolen. Nyoka I suspect will also not last another term as he has lost the confidence of the board. I often think of a book I read that chronicles the life and times of Sir Donald Bradman in which he makes the point that a good administrator is one that does things behind closed doors and that is not bigger than the game. Messrs Majola and Nyoka need to the right thing and that is stop with the mud slinging and ensure that South Africa is a position to challenge England.

Disclosure: I support the national team in South Africa in good and bad times. The administrators I mention in this post, I don't know in real life. Nor have I been privy to inside information, but I am tired of this fiasco.

 

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Update:

Yesterday, Nyoka was voted out as President for the second time. It seems that this might be last time that he is mentioned as CSA President as the vote was one of no confidence in his leadership abilities.

Cricket South Africa have dismissed their president, Mtutuzeli Nyoka, after a vote of no-confidence at a board meeting.

Nyoka was accused of bringing the CSA into disrepute by ignoring majority decisions made by the board, making unauthorised statements to the media and for irregularities involving his ex-gratia payments.
It is the second time this year Nyoka has been dismissed. In April, the high court in Johannesburg ordered the CSA to reinstate him after it had failed to follow the correct procedure when it passed a vote of no-confidence in February.

The Minisiter for Sport in South Africa has now entered this battle and seems to have a yet another commission in mind to look at this fiasco.

"I can promise the minister our full co-operation," CSA acting president AK Khan said in a statement on Sunday.
"I look forward to discussing the matter further with the minister when we meet this afternoon [Sunday]," he said.
Mbalula announced to the media on Sunday that a committee would be appointed next week.
It would be headed by a retired judge and would help bring to a close the issues raised in the KPMG audit.
The KPMG audit recommended that CSA's remuneration and travel allowance policy be reviewed.

Mbalula told a news conference he would not be deterred by the threats and was appointing a retired judge to investigate the matter.

"I got calls last night telling me to get out of this cricket thing, to leave it alone because it would be very dangerous for me," Mbalula said.

"But I will not be threatened because we must be decisive in acting against corruption, otherwise what will we say to the next federation that gobbles money? If I'm going to turn a blind eye then we will become a banana republic."

The quicker this nonsense gets done the better. CSA has battled to find sponsors for the current series against Australia and 2 out of the 3 domestic competitions dont have sponsors for this current season. The competitions involved are the T20 and 50 over competition which are the most popular by far. I dont think that potential sponsors would want to get involved until a line is drawn under this fiasco.

As much good Gerald Majola has done for cricket in South Africa since taking over from Ali Bacher, I believe strongly that the time has come for him to move on .. the reputational damage that he and Nyoka did is massive..