Suspended CSA CEO Majola found guilty over IPL bonuses

Johannesburg: Suspended Cricket South Africa CEO Gerald Majola has been found guilty of unauthorised expenditure at a disciplinary hearing to investigate the IPL II bonuses he paid to himself and other CSA staff.

The ruling was handed down in absentia as Majola is challenging, in a separate action, the legality of the Nicholson inquiry that recommended the disciplinary inquiry and investigation of possible criminal charges against him. Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula instituted the inquiry following almost two years of wrangling inside CSA over IPL 2 bonuses that Majola paid himself and other CSA staff. IPL II was played in South Africa after hurried negotiations between Majola and then IPL supremo Lalit Modi due to security concerns around elections at the time in India. "We will invite Mr Majola to make representation (on Thursday) on mitigating circumstances on why a harsh sanction is not appropriate," Nicholas Preston, a lawyer acting for CSA, told the a leading daily on Thursday. "It is not known whether he will attend. He was invited to come on (Wednesday) and we waited for him but he never appeared and neither did his attorneys," he added. Majola`s lawyers Pumezo David confirmed that neither he nor Majola would attend the disciplinary hearing on Thursday. "There is no reason for us to legitimise this process," Pumezo told the daily. The chairman of the hearing, Karel Tip, is expected to decide on a sanction by Friday, with Preston saying that it was "highly possible" that CSA would ask for Majola to be dismissed, although Acting CEO Jacques Faul declined to comment on this. Faul will appear before the committee today (Thursday). Although Majola tearfully testified at the Nicholson inquiry, pleading ignorance of corporate governance, he has now challenged the legality of the inquiry, citing not just the Sports Minister and retired Judge Chris Nicholson who headed the inquiry but even President Jacob Zuma alongside his employer CSA. PTI