Resignation of CSA president does not absolve him of wrongdoing

17 August 2020

While the Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the resignation of Cricket South Africa (CSA) President Chris Nenzani, his resignation in no way absolves him from any wrongdoing.

We find it very suspicious that the resignation comes less than a month before his tenure would have drawn to a natural close at the CSA’s annual general meeting in September, and a week before he was to give account of his conduct as President of CSA before Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Sports, Arts and Culture on 21 August 2020.

Nenzani has been the President of CSA since 2013 and his actions have directly contributed to the undermining of cricket as a sport in South Africa and lost sponsorship deals.

Previously, Nenzani has failed to answer questions from the DA in a Portfolio Committee meeting regarding allegations that he was pressured to continue as President of CSA for another year.

The DA, not only expects Nenzani to appear before Parliament despite his resignation, but we also expect him to be completely transparent in answering various questions around allegations and investigations into both the chief operating officer (COO) of CSA, Naasei Appiah, and the chief executive officer (CEO), Thabang Moroe.

The DA insists that the CSA vice-president Beresford Williams and the rest of the CSA Board to follow suit and tender their resignations as well.

The following has come to our attention since CSA previously appeared before the Committee in June 2020:

There is a clear lack of leadership at CSA, especially amongst the directors that have served with Nenzani and Williams;

Williams has been implicated in a Conflict of Interest matter for non-declaration of his interest in the Newlands Stadium Development project. His successor, Adv. Nic Kock has resigned as Western Province Cricket Union (WPCU) President, particularly sighting that he could not sign off on this project; and

The CSA Board, under Nenzani and Williams, lobbied to change the terms of reference of the forensic audit into CSA.

What was contained in that forensic report that had the CSA Board so worried that they scrambled to have the terms of reference changed after they received a summary report? The DA expects Nenzani to come clean and answer questions about his and the Board’s culpability in the chaos reigning in CSA.

Issued by Tsepo Mhlongo, DA Shadow Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, 17 August 2020