Cricket South Africa’s former director of cricket, Graeme Smith, was cleared of racism allegations by a two-man arbitration panel appointed by Cricket South Africa on Sunday night.
The former Proteas captain, who had served as Cricket SA’s Director of Cricket from December 2019 until March this year, was criticised in the final report released by CSA’s Transformation ombudsman, Adv. Dumisa Ntsebeza who, chaired the Social Justice and Nation Building hearings last year and concluded that Smith had “acted in a prejudicial and discriminatory manner.”
On Sunday night, Cricket SA released a statement confirming that Smith had been cleared with the two advocates who conducted the arbitration, Adv. Ngwako Maenetje SC and Adv. Michael Bishop found no evidence that Smith had shown bias in a trio of incidents that had been put before them.
Cricket SA also stated that it “appreciated” that “it has been difficult for Smith to endure the unwarranted public disclosures of his personal information, including his remuneration, during the SJN process. CSA regrets that this occurred and wishes Mr Smith everything of the best going forward.”
Smith chose not to re-apply for his position after his contract ended on March 31.
In its statement, CSA says Maenetje and Bishop determined that: “There was no evidentiary basis to conclude that Mr Smith engaged in racial discrimination against Mr Thami Tsolekile during the period 2012-2014; there was no evidentiary basis to conclude that Mr Smith was racially biased against black leadership at CSA and finally, 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 Pro
Former CSA Director of Cricket, Graeme Smith has been cleared by two independent arbitrators of racism allegations against him, which emanated from CSA’s Social Justice and Nation-Building (SJN) process.
— Cricket South Africa (@OfficialCSA) April 24, 2022
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