adminIT is beyond reproach that Zifa benefactor Wicknell Chivhayo did what a few Zimbabweans can do for their country by digging deep into his personal coffers to financially support the country’s flagship football team.
For giving the national team coaches brand new vehicles, securing smartphones for players, giving morale boosting handouts to outstanding players and forking out substantial amounts of money for the national team upkeep, Chivhayo deserves a big thank you.
Only a fool would remain ungrateful to a person who spends a fortune on people he does not know and does not have any relationship with.
Everyone knows that Zifa is broke and heavily indebted that they cannot fund the national team international assignments from the requisite funds needed for camping, travelling, bonuses for players and coaches, just to mention some of the key expenses.
Therefore, the assistance from Chivhayo was not only timely but of great value to the Warriors as well the nation at large.
Granted, the last thing that any normal being would expect after exhibiting such generosity is a bunch of ungrateful recipients.
But it is imperative to note that while Chivhayo did a great job our football, president Phillip Chiyangwa and his men and women at Zifa needed to go beyond sourcing sponsorship from an individual.
This is why we take sides with Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education Professor Jonathan Moyo when he says national team sponsorship must be contractual and backed by corporates, not individuals.
It is against this background that we find it rather unacceptable for Chivhayo to refuse journalists the right to question why he has not paid the national team coach salary as he pledged.
For Chivhayo to go on a tirade, shamelessly attacking journalists for simply questioning the sincerity of his pledge to pay the national team coach’s salary after the gaffer had gone for two months without receiving his salary, is just abominable, to be polite.
The wording in that strong worded attack on the person of the author of the story in our sister paper Sunday Mail actually exposed the calibre of the person Zifa is dealing with.
No doubt, journalists are duty bound to question the well being of public officials, national team coach included and the discovery that the national team coach had gone for two months without salary is a sterling job journalistically.
After all, this profession called journalism knows no sacred cows!
What the young businessman ought to have done was to own up as he pledged.
If he was not aware that the national team coach was not getting his salary, as he wants us all to believe, he should have just said that, go on to pay the coach as pledged and nothing else.
Chivhayo, just like any other citizen, is human and not immune to criticism but how we handle criticism is what matters at the end of the day. In his wisdom or lack of it thereof, Chivhayo wants us all to believe that he shall not be questioned when some of his pledges seem not fulfilled simply because he gave the Warriors this and that. No.
Our humble advice to him Chivhayo is that he should be professional as a sound businessman, sober up and stop treating fellow Zimbabweans like they were his children simply because he used his money to voluntarily support the national team.
Online Reporter