Mtutuzeli Nyoka, the president of Cricket South Africa (CSA), is likely to be ousted from office by a vote of no confidence on Saturday
Firdose Moonda14-Oct-2011Mtutuzeli Nyoka, the president of Cricket South Africa (CSA), is likely to be ousted from office by a vote of no-confidence on Saturday. The board will hold a special general meeting in Johannesburg to decide on the motion to depose Nyoka, who they have accused of various misdemeanours, the most serious of which is bringing the organisation into disrepute.Six of the eleven provinces have already made public their decision to support the motion. Gauteng, Free State, Easterns, Eastern Province, Boland and Western Province issued press releases in the last two weeks stating that they are in favour of the plan to have Nyoka removed. ESPNcricinfo has learned that at least one other union will also back the motion, which would give the board a comfortable majority to remove the president. Only Northerns Cricket Union have stated their objection to the motion and indicated that they would vote against it.Nyoka and his lawyer were informed of the proposal to remove him on September 8 when CSA’s board met at the conclusion of their annual conference. Nyoka walked out of that meeting and the members’ tabled the motion to have him ousted. They claimed that he had breached media protocol and the Companies’ Act, by taking his honorarium in advance, that they were unhappy with the way he handled press releases and national team manager Mohammad Moosajee penned a letter saying Nyoka’s conduct would make it difficult for Moosajee to maintain discipline in the team.That meeting was a significant step in the ongoing, 15-month long spat between CSA chief executive Gerald Majola, who has the support of the majority of the board, and Nyoka. The conflict began in July last year when R4.7 million (US$ 671, 428) was paid in bonuses to 40 CSA staff after the hosting of the IPL and Champions Trophy in 2009. These amounts were not passed through the board’s remunerations committee and Nyoka insisted on an external audit being held to investigate the payments.CSA held an internal inquiry instead, chaired by vice-president AK Khan, which cleared Majola of any wrongdoing and found that CSA’s corporate governance procedures were to blame and in need of a revamp. Nyoka accepted the findings but continued to question the possibility of wrongdoing within the organisation. His constant probing resulted in him being voted out of office in February this year but challenged the decision in the South Gauteng High Court and won.Deputy Judge-President Phineas Mojapelo found the CSA had not followed the proper procedure to remove Nyoka and was also critical of their reasons for ousting him, and ordered that Nyoka be reinstated. Nyoka also won the right to subject CSA to a full, financial scrutiny and an external audit was conducted by KPMG.The audit report, which has not been released to the public, found the Majola may have breached the Companies’ Act on four occasions and advised CSA to seek legal advice in order to take further action. They appointed Advocate Azhar Bham to provide opinion, which was delivered to the board orally at their AGM in August and resulted in a severe reprimand for Majola. Bham’s counsel has also been kept under wraps and Nyoka himself struggled to view both the audit report and the legal opinion.CSA have taken steps to ensure their method for dismissing Nyoka cannot be challenged this time. They have provided him with more than the required 21 working-days notice period and have laid out their charges against him expressly. Although Nyoka’s lawyer, Bernard Matheson, believes his client will have reason to take CSA back to the courts if he is removed, Nyoka has indicated that he will not continue fighting should he be toppled on Saturday. He has presented his case to various provincial unions, some in written and others in oral form, and said that, “if the cricket fraternity finds corruption acceptable to live with, then there is nothing I can do about that.”Nyoka has 10 months left in the presidency and is serving his second term after being re-elected in September 2008. He had succeeded Norman Arendse, who resigned citing differences with Majola. Khan is likely to take over as acting president until the next elections. CSA are scheduled to have elections in August next year but may move them forward.