'Generally obstructive' Omphile Ramela axed from CSA interim board

Omphile Ramela, the former South African Cricketers' Association (SACA) president, has been removed from Cricket South Africa's interim board while Xolani Vonya, the former president of Easterns, has been recused. This means the board has shrunk from its original allocation of nine members to seven and will continue in that capacity to clean up CSA.

Ramela, who resigned from the SACA presidency in November and has since been replaced by Khaya Zondo, was seen to be "generally obstructive," in the interim board and was given notice of allegations against him via email on Monday. He was called to a meeting on Tuesday, in which he could respond to those allegations in person or through an attorney. Neither Ramela nor any legal representative of his attended Tuesday's meeting and Ramela was then removed by the directors present, with all but one member - who abstained - voting him off the board.

On Thursday last week, interim board chair Zak Yacoob, confirmed the recusal of the two members - Ramela has since been removed - and detailed the issues the board was having with Ramela.

"He has been generally obstructive in relation to board matters, generally defending the indefensible, basically refusing to accept the majority," Yacoob said. "He seems to make a distinction between what is right and majority decisions, and if he feels that majority decisions are wrong that he can continue to fight about them for hours and hours. He does not have the discipline to accept majority decisions. He has been obstructive in relation to every difficult decision we have had to take, and it has been virtually impossible to deal with him."

Because of the limited time the interim board has to do its work - they were initially appointed for three months but that could be extended to six - Yacoob said their actions needed to be swift and decisive, which Ramela was not supporting. "In a three-month period, if meetings last for hours and hours, to deal with obstructive people who keep saying they don't understand this and they don't understand that when things are completely explained, then the board is not going to be able to finish its work," he said. "We judged that the chance of finishing our work was lessened considerably by these obstructive tactics."

Vonya is obtaining legal advice on his future participation on the board after his participation was suspended because of allegations against him from his time at Easterns.

Ramela and Vonya's non-participation in the board means that the only people on the board with cricketing experience are former CSA CEO Haroon Lorgat and former Western Province CEO and cricket historian Andre Odendaal.