Follow-up: Group denies disunity because ‘‘it’s democratic to disagree’
"We can only speculate the ECU didn’t want our identified candidates and had different candidates they wanted on the board.”
The Black African Interest Group (BAIG) denied that their lack of unity resulted in a split vote during the Eastern Cricket Union (ECU)’s election of new board members on February 28, saying democracy allows for disagreements, but the majority should reign.
This comes after the re-election of ECU President Thato Moagi onto the union’s board. The BAIG said Moagi does not have its backing after only receiving two votes and being rejected by nine clubs.
“The BAIG is very united,” said spokesperson Siphiwe Mgandela.
“We are all shocked at how this played itself out.”
Wattville CC chairperson Ferguson Radebe cited continuity for re-electing Moagi, but Mgandela suggested Wattville and Thembisa were coerced “to go outside the collective mandate”.
“We still refuse to accept that the two members who wanted to vote for Thato in their capacities went outside of our collective structure without someone pushing them to go outside of the collective mandate,” said Mgandela.
Only three of the group’s preferred candidates met the requirements as per clause 59.2 of the Memorandum of Incorporation (MOI).
This disqualified Thabang Ditshego, while the other candidate withdrew due to personal reasons, leaving Thabiso Msipha and Moagi to fill the two seats available for the group. Godphrey Hlengani makes up the third seat until his tenure is up.
Asked if there are disagreements about the candidates, Mgandela said Wattville and Thembisa did inform them about their nomination of Moagi, who only received two votes, while the rest of the clubs voted for Ditshego and Msipha.
He said they were shocked when they heard about Moagi’s nomination because no other names were to be received outside their group’s collective mandate, as per the rules communicated to them.
“The democratic process allowed for two names, and no other names from this process would be entertained, hence our shock when we heard about Thato and Moloi’s nominations outside the process we held and agreed on, which was communicated by Wesley Coulentianos (ECU CEO).”
He said they only heard about Moagi’s nomination during the special general meeting (SGM), and when the names emerged of candidates nominated outside their interest group before the meeting, Coulentianos refused to divulge them.
“We created a WhatsApp group and nominated and voted on names that should represent us in the group and also met to reaffirm our position when we heard the CEO’s shenanigans.
“At this point, we can only speculate the ECU didn’t want our identified candidates and had different candidates they wanted on the board for whatever interests they possibly had,” he said.
Coulentianos denied this, saying, “I don’t know why they keep lying and saying I received the nominations of the interest groups. The nominations received for Thato were from Wattville and Thembisa. Why wouldn’t they fall under that interest group?”
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