adminRobson Sharuko Senior Sports Editor
PREMIER Soccer League board member in charge of finance Webster Chikengezha has ruled himself out of the race for the job when the top-flight league’s members meet to choose their leadership next month.
The Harare business executive, who is also the Dynamos secretary-general, feels the one year he has spent in charge of PSL finances has been a trying one and there was a high risk he could fatally damage his reputation if he continues in that role.
Chikengezha was elected a member of the PSL board of directors in April last year when he polled seven votes to beat Francis Muswere of Black Mambas, who garnered five votes.
Former Dynamos treasurer, Harrison Mbewe, held that position but when he parted ways with the club in 2011, the then FC Platinum chairman, Thadson Zhou, was co-opted on interim basis but when he stepped down at the Zvishavane club, a void on the board was created.
Chikengezha embraced his election victory by announcing that he would put a lot of value in transparency, which he said was important when handling public funds, but less than a year into the job, he has been disillusioned by what he has seen.
“I want to put it on record that I will not be putting my name forward as a candidate for the post of the PSL board member in charge of finance when my short term comes to an end very soon,” Chikengezha told The Herald.
“I have been receiving a number of calls from people within and outside football, wanting to know where I stand in this, and I want to make a public declaration that I will not be standing for the position that I currently hold, or any other positions, on the board of the PSL.
“In the past year, in which I have been in charge of the PSL finances, there are things that I have seen, in terms of the way the organisation is run, which have been in conflict with the ethics that I treasure as a professional and as a business executive.
“I believe that continuing in that role, in the current way of doing business at the league, will leave me badly exposed, my reputation could be in danger of being dragged through the mud and I feel it’s in my best interests that I stay away.”
Chikengezha said he would retain his post as Dynamos secretary-general as he was more comfortable with the way things were handled at the Glamour Boys than at the PSL.
“I will, instead, devote more time to the club now because I feel things are handled better, in a more professional manner, at Dynamos than has been the case at the PSL,” said Chikengezha.
Chikengezha triggered a soul-searching exercise that gripped the PSL late last year when he questioned the way the secretariat were handling the top-flight league’s financial transactions and why he wasn’t a signatory to the league’s financial transactions even though the man he replaced, as board member in charge of finance, used to be a signatory to the league’s accounts.
The Harare business executive said he couldn’t understand why he wasn’t empowered to control the league’s expenditure, when he was the board member in charge of finance, and questioned how he was supposed to give a report to the assembly on the league’s finances when he wasn’t in control.
Chikengezha expressed his concerns by writing to the PSL chief executive, Kenny Ndebele, and former finance and administration manager, Cuthbert Mutandwa, demanding that the duo provide him with detailed reports.
Mutandwa provided his reply, in the form of an explosive dossier, which painted a sorry picture of a Premiership being torn apart by vicious boardroom battles within its secretariat and questionable corporate governance systems that he claims are stifling the growth of its brand.
On October 10 last year, Chikengezha sent e-mails to Ndebele and Mutandwa in which he shared his concerns with the two senior employees at the league’s office.
“I express my dissatisfaction on the way we are running our accounts,” Chikengezha said in his e-mail. “No monthly reports. Former Board Member Finance were signatory to the accounts but I have not been afforded the opportunity to control expenditure. No payments requests are sent to me for approval. I don’t have cash flows. At the end of the day I am the one to report on the use of money to the assembly and yet I do not have any say in how the money is being used.
“I was made to understand that the bookkeeper was to help but I am surprised that we are still in the same situation before the employment of the bookkeeper. What is going on?
“Can I have answers please?”
Online Reporter