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Sikhumbuzo Moyo Senior Sports Reporter
THE Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) will not interfere with the on-going Zifa electoral process but warned the football mother-body to be fully prepared for a backlash if it is discovered that the whole process was flawed.The commission also did not rule out a reversal of the process that has seen the holding of provincial and regional elections in recent weeks.
Speaking to Chronicle Sport yesterday, SRC’s director-general Charles Nhemachena confirmed that Zifa complied with their demand for a response to the petition by former Northern Region chairman and Zifa board member Saidi Sangula who petitioned the country’s supreme sports body seeking the nullification of all the results of elections conducted so far and a stop to the pending elections.
The SRC had demanded a response from Zifa by Monday. Zifa communications manager Xolisani Gwesela and SRC confirmed that a response has since been delivered. The SRC secretariat has forwarded the response to a sub-committee of its board for analysis and recommendations on the way forward.
“From the onset let me say that the SRC will not interfere with the Zifa electoral process. Fifa is very clear on that one, but I also want to hasten and say that if they (Zifa) continue with the whole process while there are violations to the august document, then they are actually putting themselves at risk of having the whole process reversed,” said Nhemachena, a former Zifa chief executive officer.
He added: “If it turns out that Zifa were and are in the wrong, it will indeed be catastrophic to them in the end because the whole system will be challenged. The SRC Act is very clear on why Constitutions should be registered with us. Obviously if you do something which is ultra-vires the Constitution you are likely to be challenged.”
Sangula, a Harare-based lawyer cited what he regards fundamental breaches of the Zifa constitution. He cites the composition of the Electoral Committee whose membership, he argues, was not in line with what the Constitution says as well as the non-holding of Area Zone elections.
In his petition, Sangula claimed that the Electoral Committee membership was flawed in that it was in violation of the new Zifa constitution that the association was using to not only guide their process but also give it legitimacy. Therefore, Sangula argues, everything that has been done under that document, including the results, was null and void.
After the provincial elections on January 26, which were held before the Area Zones polls in violation of the constitution, Zifa legal advisor Ralph Maganga told Chronicle Sport that they could not hold the whole election process to ransom because of the Area Zones whose house was not in order.
“Procedurally they (Area Zones) were supposed to vote (for provincial office bearers) but because no one from their sector had been voted into office, the electoral college saw it fit to bar them from participating,” he said then.
According to Sangula’s petition, the new Zifa Constitution and the Electoral Code on the subject, are clear that only members of Zifa can be members of that Electoral Committee “and given the description given by Article 10 of the new Constitution of who can be called a member of Zifa, a number of the people on that Electoral Committee do not qualify for such membership.”
Nhemachena said his office was yesterday going to forward the Zifa response to the SRC board through its audit, risk management and legal sub-committee which will look into the response and recommend to the full board on the course of action to take.
“What Zifa should have done was probably to call for an all stakeholders’ meeting on what needs to be done before the elections and some people might have pointed out any potential pitfalls to the process but the problem is that Zifa always see shadows on anything and that might come back to haunt them badly,” said director-general.
The nomination process for the Zifa national presidency and board members opened last Friday and will close on March 14 before the polls two weeks later.
Dube’s candidature was reportedly endorsed by the four regions at a meeting in Harare over the weekend. He is likely to square off against Harare City chairman and former Dynamos and Premiership secretary general Leslie Gwindi.
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