Sports Committee warns about one-sided CSA Forensic Report

13 October 2020

The Portfolio Committee on Sports, Arts and Culture today met with Cricket South Africa (CSA) to deliberate on the report of the forensic investigation into the affairs of the organisation.

The report was made available to the committee on Friday last week, following unexplained delays and attempts by CSA to deny Members of Parliament (MPs) access to the report, citing the Companies Act and “legal implications”. The committee rejected a summarised version of the report, and gave the entity an ultimatum to submit the full report.

After going through the almost 500-page document, the committee warned that the “one-sidedness” of the report could create an impression that the investigation was only targeting one man, the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

Members questioned CSA leadership why was it that “up to 95% of the report was about the CEO, and to a lesser extent the Chief Operating Officer (COO)”, and wanted to know why did it not include other members of the executive as well as the board.

“According to the Managing Director (MD) of Fundudzi Forensics, the instruction was to investigate the already suspended CEO, why did the board only target the CEO on this matter?

“When you read the report, even the person who has been found guilty and dismissed was not called to present his side of the story, we are not going to fix the situation at CSA with a one-sided report,” said committee Chairperson, Ms Beauty Dlulane.

The committee also raised a concern about the fact that issues of racism at CSA were not included in the terms of reference for the forensic investigation.

CSA told the committee that even if issues of racism were not included in the terms of reference for the forensic investigation, “there was a lot of work taking place in the area of transformation”.

The portfolio committee feels that allegations of racism in cricket were putting the country in a bad light, and recommended that Sascoc (South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee) and the Minister must be closer to the process of transformation at CSA.

Issued by Sakhile Mokoena, Media Officer, Parliamentary Communication Services, 14 October 2020