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Sikhumbuzo Moyo in BULAWAYO
FIFA have refused to endorse the suspension of two ZIFA board members and a dozen councillors in a major blow to the clique that has been trying to push their fellow leaders out of the leadership of domestic football.
ZIFA vice president Omega Sibanda and the board member in charge of finance Bernard Gwarada were the high-profile casualties of the brutal purge instigated by those who had been booted out at an extraordinary meeting by the councillors on May 16.
All the regional chairmen — Willard Manyengavana (Northern Region), Piraishe Mabhena (Eastern Region), Musa Mandaza (Southern Region) and Felton Kamambo (Central Region) — were also suspended in the purge.
The decision to suspend the regional chairmen has paralysed operations in the four regions as financial transactions cannot be done given that they were signatories to the bank accounts.
But a week after the suspensions were pronounced, with ZIFA chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze advising FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke and the world football governing body’s Southern and Eastern development officer Ashford Mamelodi, the purge has not received the blessing of the Zurich-based organisation.
Instead, FIFA told Chronicle Sport yesterday that they were monitoring the situation in Zimbabwe football.
“Fifa is currently monitoring the situation,” said Alois Hug, a FIFA spokesman.
The Sports Commission have refused to endorse the suspensions and have been communicating with Mamelodi since last week, updating the FIFA official of the chaos in Zimbabwe football and trying to find a Road Map to help ZIFA resolve the crisis sparked by the decision to boot out the 14 councillors.
The Sports Commission will order the ZIFA Board to reverse the suspensions and also announce a board of enquiry into the way the game is being run and also start a process that will see a forensic audit of the association finances being conducted.
Sports Commission director general Charles Nhemachena reacted to the suspensions by saying that ZIFA had become dysfunctional to the extent of becoming a threat to national interests.
“The Sport and Recreation Commission (SRC) notes with concern the continued turmoil in governance of football in the country,” Nhemachena said in a statement.
“The reported suspensions of some members by the ZIFA Board yesterday, in addition to the earlier suspension of Women’s Football representative on the board (Miriam Sibanda) are but a manifestation of the dysfunctional governance that now characterises the administration of the beautiful game of football.
“The recent action to suspend some of the ZIFA Council and board members as aforementioned is in complete disregard of the advice that the commission and indeed the ministry has been giving to the ZIFA Board; specifically on the need to work as a team and to desist from engaging in actions that would shift their focus from the primary goal of football development and developing the sport into an industry that is capable of contributing meaningfully to the ideals of youth empowerment, employment creation and growing the economy.
“It is apparent that the dysfunctional conflicts that now characterise the football leadership are so deep-rooted to the extent that no meaningful effort towards the development of football can be expected.
“This, coupled with other glaring inadequacies of our football leadership, has become a serious threat to our national interest.
“The Commission notes and appreciates the anxiety of the nation at large, created by the goings-on in ZIFA and the understandable impatience for corrective action to be taken immediately.”
There have been a number of meetings that have been held, in the past week, with the Sports Commission playing a very central role to try and resolve the ZIFA crisis.
Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Andrew Langa is so upset with the recurrent problems at ZIFA that he warned the Sports Commission at a meeting here on Sunday night that he was likely to disband the commission’s board for its failure to restore normalcy at 53 Livingstone Avenue.
The world football governing body nullified the resolutions from the May 16 councillors’ meeting, where the authority of ZIFA president Cuthbert Dube to keep running the association was revoked, arguing that there were some procedural anomalies in the holding of that indaba.
Former ZIFA chairman, Vincent Pamire yesterday said the suspensions of the 14 councillors was unwarranted since they had been part of a due process, which FIFA had recognised, and their input was needed in the Road Map to resolve the crisis at 53 Livingstone Avenue.
“FIFA gave us a Road Map and by doing that they acknowledged that we have a crisis and we need to work together to ensure that we resolve the issues affecting us right now and that is why they said there should be a Joint Congress by June 16,” said Pamire.
“We have to respect FIFA and follow that Road Map until we get a solution to the challenges that we have right now in our football.
“But we can’t do that when we are suspending each other because all the people have a part to play in ensuring that we follow that Road Map and whatever comes out, at the end, we respect that outcome.
“There is no way that you can get a Road Map from FIFA and, before you have completed that, you suspend some of the people whom FIFA expect to be part of the process to get a resolution to the challenges that are affecting you.
“My advice to the people who are in charge at ZIFA is that this is not the time for witch-hunting and suspensions but it’s just the time to ensure that we follow the FIFA Road Map and get to the end of the process and see what it gives us.”
Pamire was the ZIFA chairman in charge when the Warriors finally exorcised the ghost that had haunted them for more than 20 years by qualifying for their first Nations Cup finals in 2003.
Online Reporter