JOHANNESBURG – Five former employees of Cricket South Africa have accused the organisation of lying and being unethical.
In a six page letter addressed to the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee, the five – former head of sales and marketing, Clive Eksteen, former chief operating officer Nassei Appiah, the former senior manager of finance, Ziyanda Nkuta, the former manager for procurement Lundi Maja and Appiah’s former PA, Dalene Nolan – claim that their dismissals were “unfair and unlawful.”
Eksteen, who was fired in June is taking CSA to the CCMA, while Appiah was fired in August. The other three were all dismissed in December last year.
“Our concern is that Cricket South Africa has, through various officials, misled and continues to mislead Parliament, the Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture and the public,” reads the letter to Sascoc. “By so doing, Cricket South Africa has created a narrative that the organisation’s woes are the results of irresponsible stakeholder and financial management for which we were suspended and in most cases dismissed.”
“The organisation seeks to paint a picture whereby it appears to have dealt with the problem by our expulsion and to assure all interested parties that this was done in keeping with good governance, natural justice and the law of the land. This cannot be further from the truth as Cricket South Africa has been underhanded in its dealing with us by completely abandoning any ethics that demand that a disciplinary hearing is conducted in a manner that is lawful, procedurally fair and in the best interest of the organisation and the sport.”
Cricket South Africa has been rocked by one crisis followed by another for most of the last two years. Eksteen and Appiah’s problems with their former employer started when they, along with Corrie van Zyl, were suspended in October last year, with CSA alleging their involvement in the failure to properly deal with image rights fees that were supposed to be paid to the SA Cricketers Association for the 2018 Mzansi Super League.
While Van Zyl has returned to the organisation in a consultancy role, both Appiah And Eksteen were dismissed. “We firmly believe our suspensions and ultimately our unfair and unlawful dismissals are interlinked to the entire governance crisis that has plagued CSA and ought to be reviewed or investigated,” the five add.
Cricket SA has endured a painful 2020, following the suspension last December of Thabang Moroe, as CEO, the establishment of a forensic investigation about his managing of CSA’s affairs, then an explosion of controversy around transformation. At the same time poor corporate governance practices have emerged which led to the postponement of CSA’s AGM.
The organisation has been severely criticised by the nationally contracted players, its own provincial affiliates and sponsors have expressed their concerns about how the organisation is run.
In the last two months CSA has been unable to loosen the hold on it that resulted from the continuing secrecy surrounding the report that resulted from the forensic investigation. The report can only be viewed following the signing of an NDA, something Sascoc, which claims it must see the report, is unwilling to do.
Towards the end of last week, Sascoc stepped in saying they wanted to appoint a task team to investigate CSA, a decision CSA is questioning.
Cricket SA’s Members Council – the 14 provincial union presidents – is attending a two-day workshop this weekend, where it is understood the availability of the forensic report will be discussed.
IOL Sport