How CSA lost racism case after trying to 'trap' Smith in Boucher appointment debate

Cricket South Africa (CSA) was found to have attempted to "trap" its former director of cricket (DOC) Graeme Smith during their arbitration hearing in the matter involving Mark Boucher's appointment, which cost them its case.

Independent arbitrators Adv Ngwako Maenetje SC and Adv Michael Bishop cleared Smith on all four charges of racial discrimination, which arose following the CSA's Social Justice and Nation-building (SJN) project findings.

In his "tentative findings", SJN Ombudsman Adv Dumisa Ntsebeza SC found that Smith "unfairly discriminated on the basis of race against Enoch Nkwe" when appointing Boucher as Proteas men's head coach in December 2019.

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This formed the basis of CSA's case against Smith. However, arbitrators concluded that "CSA did not prove that Mr Smith's appointment of Mr Boucher was unfair racial discrimination against Mr Nkwe".

Nkwe was appointed as Boucher's assistant in December 2019 before resigning in 2021, months before the ICC T20 World Cup.

Details have since emerged that, after initially pleading that Smith directly discriminated against Nkwe on the basis of race by picking Boucher, CSA tried to "trap" Smith by trying to use his reasons for appointing Boucher against him.

Smith testified that the reason he appointed Boucher ahead of Nkwe was that "Nkwe lacked international experience and that the assistant coach position would allow him to gain that experience".

After failing to prove direct racial discrimination against Smith, CSA turned their argument around to say that by using "international experience" as a barometer for the Proteas head coach position, Smith was discriminatory