Deluded Majola should resign

Delusion is exactly how I would describe Gerald Majola’s continuing stance that he is innocent, and as such, won’t resign.

This is even after the Nicholson commission released its findings, stating Majola did violate the Companies Act, and should be investigated by the National Prosecuting Authority for not disclosing bonuses he received from the IPL and ICC a couple of years ago to Cricket South Africa (CSA).

I reported on the hearings for three days, listening to accounts of what happened, and while I was suspicious that grave errors had been made, the line in the sand drawn by Nicholson’s report is categorical in saying that Majola did do wrong, and while not implicitly stated, the CSA board allowed for it to happen. It was a cover-up bungled from the start.

The recriminations have already began, with former CSA vice president and current acting president AK Khan, who headed up an internal inquiry that slapped Majola on the wrist, resigning on Wednesday. John Blair, chairman of the audit committee, also decided to leave the organisation. Khan said new leadership was required, an understatement of massive proportions, while Blair said he was moving on in the best interests of cricket.

The whole board should resign. It’s the only conclusive way the public, players and sponsors will be guaranteed a fresh start. Otherwise, like cancer (because that’s what it was), if any remnants of Majola’s board are left how can we believe there has been actual change?

It took a committee of inquiry and tax payers’ money to make both men realise the folly of their position. The administrative core and reputation of cricket in this country has been dying a slow death since the bonus saga began. If the men involved in this despicable circus truly loved cricket, truly cared about its well being, they would’ve resigned long ago or taken a stand against Majola’s antics. But they did not, and while the cleaning has finally begun, it is far, far too late for any honour to be salvaged.

On the contrary, it’s more a situation of crew members leaving a sinking ship, while their captain, Majola, is stuck in a moral-less, lethargic paternalism and refuses to leave.

As a cricket fan, I’m disgusted. As a journalist, I’m astonished. Perhaps we are simply reaping what South Africa’s non-existent culture of accountability has produced: a cadre of top officials, who, even when they see the end, hang in there to receive paid leave and drag the saga out for their own benefit.

I once respected Majola, since Cricket South Africa appeared, from the outside, to be on the right track in the early 2000s. Now, like a dream that has been startled to death and replaced by a somber and ugly reality, we are left with a man without honour who, as once said on The Wire, prefers to live in shit rather then let the world see him work a shovel.

How can he not see it? I just don’t understand.