Former South Africa captain Graeme Smith has been cleared of racism allegations levelled against him by Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) Social Justice and Nation-Building (SJN) report.
The report, which was submitted in December last year, made “tentative findings” that Smith had engaged in racially biased and discriminatory behaviour as Proteas captain and subsequently as CSA’s director of cricket.
Those findings were taken to arbitration by CSA and Smith has been cleared of all allegations by two independent advocates, who found there was “no evidentiary basis” that the 41-year-old had engaged in racial discrimination against former team-mate Thami Tsolekile between 2012 and 2014.
There was also no evidentiary basis that Smith was racially biased against black leadership at CSA, or that his appointment of Mark Boucher, rather than Enoch Nkwe, as Proteas coach in 2019 amounted to unfair racial discrimination.
The arbitration award directed CSA to pay Smith’s costs.
Lawson Naidoo, chair of the CSA board, said: “Now that finality on these processes has been reached, it is appropriate to recognise the extraordinary contribution that Graeme has made to South African cricket, first as the longest-serving Test captain in cricket history and then as director of cricket from 2019 to 2022.
“His role as the DoC has been critical in rebuilding the Proteas Men’s team in particular and has laid a solid foundation for his successor.”
Smith’s contract as director of cricket expired at the end of March and the position has been publicly advertised.
