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Drama as newly appointed CSA executive quits three weeks into the job

The Cricket SA office in Johannesburg, where Denga Ramuedzisi has been appointed executive support officer. File photo.
The Cricket SA office in Johannesburg, where Denga Ramuedzisi has been appointed executive support officer. File photo.
Image: Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images

Denga Ramuedzisi‚ the man appointed by the Cricket South Africa (CSA) interim board to serve as the link between the board and executive management‚ has quit after just three weeks in the job.

The CSA interim board announced the appointment of Ramuedzisi as the executive support officer during a media briefing last week and said one of his functions was to improve the relaionship between the CSA board and the executive management.

Ramuedzisi told TimesLIVE on Thursday that he offered to step down after he realised that the interim board had restricted the scope of his work.

“I stepped down for two things‚” said Ramuedzisi‚ who started his job on January 4.

“One is that there were some discrepancies in the remuneration around my employment‚ the other is I felt that the interim board was limiting my scope of work.

“My title and scope of work kept on changing in the three weeks that I have been at CSA and I felt that I was being reduced to just admin work‚ which I felt I’m more than qualified for‚ given my experience and qualifications‚” said Ramuedzisi.

The chartered accountant did not want to get into details but said he was “disappointed” at the way things turned out for him with the CSA interim board.

Ramuedzisi has a professional background in auditing‚ investment banking‚ consulting‚ curatorship and liquidations and began his career at one of the “big five” audit firms in their financial services audit department.

CSA interim board spokesperson Judith February said Ramuedzisi was appointed to bolster capacity at executive level at the organisation.

But February said that in the past few days the interim board has been mulling over Ramuedzisi’s scope of work.

February said the interim board then came to a realisation that there was no sufficient work to be done for Ramuedzisi’s level of seniority.

“Last year when we were appointed‚ we thought we needed to beef up the capacity at because we did not have an acting CEO in that position‚” February told TimesLIVE on Thursday‚ despite the fact that Kugandrie Govender was appointed acting CEO by the previous board a month earlier.

Govender is serving a suspension and a disciplinary hearing against her is imminent.

“[Ramuedzisi’s appointment] was also to assist the board with regards to the Memorandum of Incorporation and getting us to the AGM‚ given that there are capacity constraints within CSA.”

Controversial erstwhile CSA interim board chairperson Judge Zak Yacoob‚ who was forced to step down this week after his well publicised conduct‚ said during a media briefing announcing the appointment last week that Ramuedzisi had already been of great assistance to the board and clicked with the acting CEO Pholetsi Moseki.

February said financial manager Moseki has been doing a “good” job as acting CEO and is establishing relationships with other senior managers such as director of cricket Graeme Smith.

“He has been doing a fine job‚” said February of Moseki.

“We found as the interim board that given the fact that the current acting CEO has been capable in his job‚ we felt that the role for Denga was rather smaller than anticipated.

“Then we had to decide whether that assistance is really necessary‚ and in the end it was really felt in the past few days that the role for Denga‚ there was no sufficient work to be done for his level of seniority.

“Therefore we decided that it would be best for us not to Ramuedzisi any further because that might not be the best use of our recourses given that Pholetsi Moseki was capable in his job. That’s all there is to this matter.”