Johannesburg: One of the former Cricket of South Africa (CSA), who is also a director of Cricket as well as Captain Graeme Smith, finally got a clean chit in the case of racism allegations against him amid the outcome of the board’s Social Justice and Nation-Building (SJN) commission’s report.
In the last month of 2021, there was a 235 pages report the SJN Commission head Dumisa Ntsebeza submitted in which they clearly blamed Smith, he is a current head coach Mark Boucher and former skipper AB de Villiers, among others, for engaging in racial discrimination.
According to the reports of the Ombudsman’s SJN, which made various “tentative findings” regarding discrimination and racism.
After the case was filed, CSA launched a formal inquiry, and that inquiry indicated that he was not in a position to make “definite findings” and that suggested that a further process should be taken.
The report blamed Smith for discrimination, especially against the black players by not selecting them for the national team.
After a complete arbitration process, advocates Ngwako Maenetje SC and Michael Bishop cleared the former skipper of all the three accounts he was charged for.
However, there was no proof which indicates that Mr Smith has any relation to racism or discrimination against Mr Thami Tsolekile from 2012 through 2014, as stated by CSA.
The second report of CSA also stated that during their research, they got no proof which shows that he did discrimination against Black leadership.
The third report of CSA that there was no evidentiary basis to conclude Mr Smith’s appointment of Mr Mark Boucher, rather than Mr Enoch Nkwe, as coach of the men’s Proteas team in 2019 amounted unfair racial discrimination.
Lawson Naidoo, Chair of the CSA Board, commented: “The manner in which they discuss these issues and try to resolve them with good research by arbitration proceedings confirms CSA’s responsibility in order to deal with the SJN issues in a manner that treats them with utmost seriousness but also ensures fairness, due process and finality.”
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