Suspended CEO Thabang Moroe goes to court to interdict Cricket SA meeting

Drama unfolded on Wednesday when it emerged that suspended Cricket South Africa (CSA) CEO Thabang Moroe is preparing to file papers at the high court in a bid to stop the organisation from proceeding with plans to haul him before the board on Thursday.

TimesLIVE can confirm that CSA sent a letter to Moroe last month notifying him of its intention to terminate his contract for “cause”.

The embattled organisation invited the suspended CEO to present himself before the board on Thursday August 13 to give reasons why he should not be dismissed.

Employers can activate a “termination for cause” clause for any actions that are considered as grave misconduct.

Moroe was suspended in December last year over allegations of misconduct and has continued to earn his full salary for the last nine months.

He replied to CSA through his lawyers last week and turned down the invitation. He demanded to be subjected to a disciplinary process with an independent chairperson.

Moroe gave CSA until 10am on Wednesday August 12 to abort their plans but the cricket governing body refused to withdraw.

He is now taking the organisation to court to interdict them from proceeding with the process.“We will be filing court papers this evening (Wednesday) or at best tomorrow (Thursday) morning to interdict CSA from proceeding with their plans.

"Essentially‚ the CSA board wants to act as a disciplinary body against our client and that cannot be permitted‚ as per the CSA disciplinary code‚” lawyers from Motsoeneng Bill Attorneys acting on behalf of Moroe told TimesLIVE on Wednesday.

The lawyers said they do not believe that the CSA board is a competent structure to preside over the alleged misconduct case against Moroe.

“We want our client to be subjected to an independent chairperson who is going to preside over the proceedings as per the CSA disciplinary code and procedure. We believe the Board will be biased and we don’t want our client to appear before a biased Board.”

CSA on Wednesday confirmed the meeting.“I can confirm that Mr. Moroe is due to appear before the Board tomorrow [Thursday] to answer the various charges that have been put to him‚” a CSA executive consultant told TimesLIVE.

TimesLIVE reported last month that CSA only furnished Moroe with a charge sheet containing eight counts of misconduct eight months after his suspension.Moroe was suspended during a chaotic first week in December last year on allegations of misconduct pending investigations.

CSA said at the time the decision to place the CEO on precautionary suspension emanated from reports received by the social and ethics and the audit and risk committee reports related to possible failure of controls in the organisation.

During the course of Moroe’s suspension‚ a forensic audit of critical aspects of the business and the conduct of management related to such aspects (failure of controls in the organisation) shall be conducted by an independent forensic team‚ said CSA on December 6.