Cape Town - Cricket South Africa (CSA) remains adamant that a permanent Director of Cricket (DOC) will be announced soon.
There is exactly one month to go until a high-profile visit from world champions England - comprising of four Test matches, three ODIs and three T20s - gets underway with the Boxing Day Test at Centurion.
With the Proteas in a state of disarray following a woeful year that included a home Test series loss to Sri Lanka, a seventh-place finish at the World Cup in England and a 3-0 thrashing in the recently-completed Test series in India, South African cricket is crying out for leadership.
Following the sacking of coach Ottis Gibson after that failed World Cup campaign, Enoch Nkwe continues to operate as the interim Team Director despite having very little experience at international level.
Filling the DOC role, though, has proven to be a bit more complicated.
Corrie van Zyl had been operating in an acting DOC position, but he was suspended by CSA last month for what the organisation said was a dereliction of duty relating to unpaid player rights during the 2018 Mzansi Super League.
Then, earlier this month, former Proteas captain Graeme Smith was heavily linked to the job only before removing himself from the running six days later citing a "frustrating" negotiation period with CSA.
Last week, CSA CEO Thabang Moroe stated publicly that a development on the DOC position would be announced on Friday, but that also didn't materialise as cricket lovers around the country waited for the news.
On Tuesday, speaking over the phone to Sport24, CSA's head of communications Thamie Mthembu confirmed that CSA had settled on a clear direction they wanted to take and that the announcement would be made as soon as possible.
"There are plans to make an announcement pretty soon ... we're tying up some loose ends," he said.
"Our intention is to bring stability to the team, and we realise that it's been a while since we had people who are permanent. Our intention is to announce someone who is permanent.
"That speaks to maybe why it is taking longer."
Mthembu also suggested that it was unfortunate that Smith had taken to the media to distance himself from the role.
"It did not help that some of our strong people (candidates) got to a point where they felt that they did not want to participate because when you're looking at people, you want to look at all the people and then suddenly one or two of them pull out and we have to read it in the media," he said.
Former national selector Hussein Manack is another who has been linked to the post, and Mthembu added it was important that whoever was unveiled would have the trust of the public.
"There is a view on which direction the panel wants to go. They are just tying up some loose ends," he said.
"We want to deliver somebody that you are going to be happy with.
"We don't want to deliver somebody whose credentials you are going to question. We want to start speaking about the sport of cricket. We don't want to talk about politics."
CSA has also conducted interviews for the new national convenor of selectors with former convenor Linda Zondi, former Proteas seamer Monde Zondeki and the little-known Patrick Moroney expected to be the front-runners.
Ideally, the DOC will be appointed first to help with that decision.