Cricket South Africa suspends chief executive Thabang Moroe

On Friday, the title sponsor of South Africa’s national men’s team announced the end of its association with Cricket South Africa (CSA) at a time when the organisation is going through a serious crisis. Standard Bank, a long-time sponsor, made it clear that the decision was linked to the recent controversies in the CSA and would not renew its agreement once the season ends in April next year.

While the development put South Africa’s cricket lovers in a lot of doubt, they also found a glimmer of hope when the board’s controversial chief executive Thabang Moroe was suspended.

A letter from the CSA staff issued on Friday said Moroe had been “put … on precautionary suspension with pay, effective 06 December 2019, on allegations of misconduct, pending further investigations”, CricBuzz reported. The decision came in the wake of reports that have been received by the board’s social ethics and the audit and risk committees related to the possible failure of its controls.

While Moroe wasn’t around, “a forensic audit of critical aspects of the business and the conduct of management related to such aspects shall be conducted by an independent forensic team”, the report added.

New names are being floated as chief executive in Moroe’s absence

It was also learnt that CSA President Chris Nenzani will meet former ICC chief executive Dave Richardson, a former South Africa cricketer, with a view to appointing an acting chief executive in Moroe’s place. The names that are doing the rounds are that of Haroon Lorgat — a former chief executive who had a fallout with the current regime a couple of years ago — and Jacques Faul — who had acted as the chief executive when the board had faced a major scandal in 2012-13 over undeclared bonuses and the then chief executive Gerald Majola was suspended.

Cricket Boland chief executive James Fortuin’s name was also being head but he dismissed any such possibility. The uneasy situation in the CSA went on for months and it snowballed last week when five senior journalists’ accreditation was revoked. Though it was reinstated the same day, the damage had been done and Standard Bank sought a meeting with the CSA on Monday.

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