South African Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula has summoned the country’s Cricket Board officials to discuss the latest row over huge bonuses paid to CEO Gerald Majola and two other top CSA officials.
Chief financial officer Naasei Appiah and Brand and Corporate Communications Manager Kass Naidoo are also under the scanner along with Majola.
The latest bonuses totalling 1.9 million rands were paid to Majola, Appiah and Naidoo after a highly successful season that included the tour by India and the Champions League.
But the payments were allegedly made without approval by the CSA Board.
Although the chairman of the Audit Committee John Blair said the board was required to approve such payments, CSA denied any irregularity in a statement issued yesterday.
The latest revelations threaten to disrupt the uneasy truce between CSA President Mtutuzeli Nyoka and Majola.
Nyoka was dismissed in absentia earlier this year after he queried the allegedly irregular IPL payments to Majola, who repaid the bonus and was then cleared after an internal investigation.
Nyoka had called for an independent forensic audit, which is now underway after Nyoka returned to his position following a High Court ruling.
CSA finally agreed to the inquiry after the Sports Minster threatened to intervene.
Mbalula, who has previously expressed his keenness to end the squabbling within CSA in the interest of developing cricket among the youth, will be joined by the Acting Director-General of his ministry Sumayya Khan.
