King Commission closes down

By M.S. Prabhakara

CAPE TOWN, FEB. 22. The King Commission, inquiring into allegations of match-fixing in South African cricket, has closed down. This dramatic development has taken place only days after the head of the commission, Mr. Justice Edwin King, denied reports of its closing down.

Announcing the decision, Mr. King said he had approached the President (under whose authority the commission was announced) to close down the commission, subject to the compilation of a final report. The commission had already published two interim reports. It had achieved its objective of investigating and reporting on cricket match-fixing and related matters, Mr. King said.

He said the decision was `precipitated' by the threat of Hansie Cronje's attorney to challenge the constitutional validity of his appointment. Litigation on this issue, whatever the outcome, would have placed an additional burden, he added.

However, this was only a `threat', and no actual challenge had been mounted till now. Lawyers for Cronje had simply drawn Mr. King's attention early in December last to the Constitutional Court's judgment on 28 November (in a different matter) that the appointment of a serving judge to head a commission with executive powers was unconstitutional.

Mr. King was a retired judge and legal experts said it was not clear if the `retainment' of his services by the Justice Department would make his appointment mean the same thing as a sitting judge heading the commission.

Quoting Ms. Shamila Batohi, the commission's evidence leader, Mr. King said there was no evidence implicating any other present and former member of the South African cricket team or any cricket administrator or official. However, there was evidence in the form of an ``uncompleted forensic report by a private firm of auditors'' and the disclosures there would be taken up by an appropriate agency.

With the closing down of the commission, any question of Mr. King's `satisfaction' whether Hansie Cronje had been entirely truthful and had made `full disclosure' falls away. The focus has now shifted to the United Cricket Board of South Africa which imposed the `life ban' on Cronje and which was being challenged by the player.

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