Cricket South Africa (CSA) president Mtutuzeli Nyoka was ousted Saturday following a public feud with the organisation’s chief executive Gerald Majola.
Published: Feb 13, 2011, 12:04 PM (IST)
Edited: Feb 13, 2011, 12:04 PM (IST)
Johannesburg, February 13, 2011
Cricket South Africa (CSA) president Mtutuzeli Nyoka was ousted Saturday following a public feud with the organisation’s chief executive Gerald Majola.
A meeting of CSA members’ forum, comprising provincial presidents, passed a vote of no confidence in Nyoka at a special meeting in Johannesburg.
A CSA statement said a majority of the forum proposed a motion of no confidence and that Dr Nyoka’s position would be terminated immediately.
Vice president AK Khan will be acting president until an annual general meeting is scheduled for August.
A dispute between Nyoka and Majola has been simmering since Nyoka challenged the payment of a 1.7 million rand (233,757 dollars) bonus to Majola following the staging of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in South Africa in 2009.
Other key staff also received bonuses, which were awarded without the approval of CSA’s remuneration committee.
Nyoka recently accused Majola of lying to him about the contents of a contract between CSA and the IPL.
The then president claimed he was deceived into supporting Majola in a row with the Gauteng Cricket Board, which controls the country’s biggest cricket stadium, the Wanderers in Johannesburg, resulting in the Gauteng board being dissolved.
Gauteng demanded to know the terms of the contract between CSA and the IPL, stating that it believed Majola had put CSA at financial risk.
Casualties of the controversy include the board’s treasurer, Hentie van Wyk, and leading banker Paul Harris, an independent director, who failed to gain re-election at last year’s annual meeting after querying the bonus payments.
When the payments were first made public before the 2010 annual meeting, CSA promised an independent inquiry but this was later changed to an internal hearing, headed by vice-president Khan, which cleared Majola of wrongdoing.
While the row was at its height last month, South African captain Graeme Smith put his name to a statement backing Majola, who he said “backed the team to the hilt in every possible way”.
Smith said he did not believe the controversy would affect his team’s performance at the World Cup, which begins in India next week.
© AFP
