Photo Credit: Cricket South Africa
The Interim Board of Cricket South Africa (CSA) has noted media reports and the letter from the Ombud for Transformation, Advocate Ntsebeza SC, in which the hearings scheduled for this week are postponed until July 2021, as the Ombud will be unavailable due to his other commitments from 27 May 2021 until July 2021.
To this end, the Board wishes to reconfirm its full support for the Social Justice and Nation-Building (SJN) process and ultimately the objectives of enhancing and accelerating transformation. The Board confirms that, at no point, was it seeking to delay a meaningful process in relation to transformation, but rather to postpone by a few days in order to strengthen the process.
However, over the past weekend, it became very clear that there were significant legal and fiduciary risks which the Board and the Ombudsman were obligated to consider and manage before the hearing could proceed. It was then agreed, with full support from the Ombud, that the proposed hearings for last Monday would be postponed until the Board had properly addressed all the risks facing the SJN process, the Ombud and CSA.
The Board has a fiduciary responsibility to ensure that any risk to CSA is mitigated and the Ombud has supported this in the knowledge that the SJN process and CSA needed to be protected. It was on that basis that a statement, confirmed by the Ombud and the Interim Board, was released late on Sunday night.
Chair of the Board, Dr Stavros Nicolaou, said: “Regrettably there has been inaccurate reporting regarding the postponement of the hearings and we have also noted that testimony has been leaked. This is most unfortunate as it will possibly compromise the SJN initiative.
“We are confident, though, that the legal advice sought will help the Ombudsman to establish a fair and transparent process for any future hearings and this will mitigate the risk for CSA.”
