By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
@GalloImages.
Sascoc has continued its offensive against the Sports Minister Nathi Mthethwa’s involvement at Cricket South Africa.
The Olympic body is questioning whether Mthethwa flouted the National Sport and Recreation Act in his involvement in the adoption of a new board at CSA.
Sascoc is asking the Sports Portfolio Committee to investigate the minister’s actions.
Mthethwa is accused of forcing Cricket SA into a Memorandum of Incorporation (MOI).
Cricket South Africa (CSA) has published its new Memorandum of Incorporation (MOI) as approved by unanimous vote of the federation’s members council on 30 April.
Last month, the interim board of CSA and its members’ council had a public dispute over the MOI amendments that would allow for the appointment of the independent majority board.
The issue, which had threatened to strip the cricket body of its national status, was resolved with an “agreement reached on all those outstanding issues”.
“As I stated at last week’s landmark media briefing it is important in the interests of transparency that the new MOI is made available to all our stakeholders,” said CSA interim board chair, Stavros Nicolaou.
“This includes our sponsors, our media, our players and, most importantly, the general public.
“With the MOI now in place, the board can concentrate on one of the outstanding issues in its mandate from the Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Nathi Mthethwa, the planning of the annual general meeting which will take place on 12 June.”
CSA acting president Rihan Richards welcomed the publication of the new MOI.
Sascoc counters that this contravenes its own constitution, which requires all national federations to have open and fair elections for members.
The other issue, also raised in the Sascoc discussion document, centres on the sport amendment bill, with fears that it will give the minister too much power.
And judging from Mthethwa’s comments over the past few weeks, is transformation. He’s brought it up a few times while talking about governance at CSA and other national federations.
Playing out as a sideshow in all of this is what appears to be a poor relationship between Mthethwa and Sascoc president Barry Hendricks.
It dates back to more than a year ago, when Mthethwa wrote to the IOC complaining about Hendricks, then the acting president, and asking it to intervene in Sascoc.
Hendricks ended up winning the Sascoc presidency by a convincing margin late last year, while Mthethwa’s seemingly preferred candidate, Aleck Skhosana, was voted out as Athletics SA (ASA) president on Saturday.