adminRicky Zililo Senior Sports Reporter
FORMER Zifa board members Nigel Munyati and Morgan Dube have blasted the national association’s councillors for dereliction of duty for not demanding that Phillip Chiyangwa and his executive appoint relevant committees to ensure the smooth running of the game.
Munyati, who served as a board member for finance from 2010-2014, took a swipe at the Chiyangwa-led board, saying the delay in appointing the committees was an indication of disorganisation in Zifa.
Chiyangwa dissolved the finance, audit, competitions, technical and development, referees, Futsal and beach soccer as well as the player status committees soon after being voted in as the new Zifa boss in December 2015.
Only heads of the committees from within the board were named, but no other members were appointed.
“The board on its own can’t do everything. What the board is simply doing is denying themselves a broader view of football administration by delaying announcing these committees,” said Munyati.
“They can’t be everywhere at the same time and are therefore denying themselves a chance to be an effective board. Do we know better than Fifa and Caf, who saw the importance of having these sub-committees? This delay creates an unorganised system of managing football because Zifa is losing critical information from all those critical areas.
“This will certainly affect the quality of the organisation’s operations because they’re consuming most of their time on match-fixing, yet they also need to manage other operations. Everything boils down to the councillors who are not doing their duty because instead of journalists probing about these sub-committees, the councillors who should be demanding them are quiet,” he said.
Dube, a former Southern Region chairman who also sat on the Zifa board during Cuthbert Dube’s tenure, blamed councillors.
“The councillors immediately went to sleep after elections and we are now seeing the problems of voting people who don’t understand what they have to do in office. The committees are part of a Fifa roadmap meant to make administration or rather the running of football easier,” said Dube.
“Does it mean Zifa is wiser than the world governing body? What’s clear is that our football is in a dilemma because what will happen if there are player disputes now; who will inspect and approve the stadia and for how long shall referees continue without a committee?”
Former Premier Soccer League secretary-general Mwandibuya Mutepfa said Zifa was shooting itself in the foot by delaying appointments of members to serve in the sub-committees.
“I don’t know the rationale behind the delay, but under normal circumstances, committees should’ve been operational. With the Swaziland home game around the corner, there must be a finance committee to help plug loopholes at entry points to maximise on revenue,” said Mutepfa.
“Besides the international games, who’ll authorise grounds and supervise referees? The league games are starting next week and these guys might find themselves overwhelmed and kick-off the season with unfit referees or certify unsuitable stadia to host games,” Mutepfa said.
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