Sundaymail Editor
HENRIETTA RUSHWAYA was the first person to wave the idea of being Zifa president in Phillip Chiyangwa’s face.
Chiyangwa shocked many when he ascended to the top post in local football on December 5, 2015 and has now revealed how it all started.
“The person who made me the president of Zifa is Henrietta Rushwaya,” the businessman sensationally claimed in an interview in Harare last week.
“She came and said mukoma please come and lead chinhu ichi. She was in the company of the people who turned out to be my campaign managers.
“I said OK but you Henrietta stay far away from me. When I come in I will look at all your problems and I was true to my word; I came in and lifted her Asiagate suspension.
“I said look here, she is a woman. What can she possibly do? But no sooner had I done that did she pop up in the Limpopogate affair.
“There was no other option but to suspend her again.”
Although Rushwaya was cleared by the courts – together with Edzai Kasinauyo and Hwange coach Nation Dube – on charges of trying to fix Warriors as well as Absa Premiership matches she remains suspended from local football.
However, Chiyangwa hinted that the former Zifa chief executive will soon have her suspension lifted.
“It’s a matter I am actively pursuing, making consultations, and it’s most likely that her ban will be lifted.
“However, she must be very careful after I have done that. I realise where we come from but she must never take my gratitude as being weak. I don’t like that.
“She is the one who started the journey that took me to Zifa, Cosafa, Caf and now possibly Fifa but she must not act in the way she does…it is cheap, diabolical and the worst thing is she is sabotaging her own country,” said Chiyangwa.
Kasinauyo has been flying under the radar since the conclusion of the Limpopogate hullabaloo.
He is unlikely to come back and take over his development portfolio in the Zifa board.
It appears a strategic move on the part of the former Warriors midfielder.
“With Edzai we are clear, he came, we talked and he said let me do what I do and will rise when the time comes,” revealed Chiyangwa.
Online Reporter