Gwindi ponders next move

Petros Kausiyo Deputy Sports Editor
HARARE City chairman Leslie Gwindi was yesterday still keeping his cards close to the chest and pondering his next move following a five-year ban that was slapped on him by the Zifa disciplinary committee earlier this week.
Gwindi was on Tuesday handed a five-year ban that was laced with some conditions which the firebrand administrator would have to meet in order to escape a two-year effective suspension from all football activities in the country.

The former Dynamos and Premier Soccer League secretary-general was yesterday still tight-lipped on his views on the outcome of the ruling and declined to speak about it fearing that any further comments could jeopardise his case.

Gwindi instead took a cautious approach and referred all questions to his lawyer Charles Chinyama, who also represented him during the Zifa disciplinary committee hearing, in which he was being accused of bringing the game into disrepute through media comments attributed to him in March last year.

Chinyama said he had held discussions with his client following the release of the judgment handed down by the committee chaired by former magistrate Andrew Musengezi.

But the lawyer said they would only make their determination on the move they intend to make by today.
“We have had receipt of the judgment and discussed it but we are still considering a number of options that are available to us and within the next 24 hours we should have come up with our position.

“You can check with me again tomorrow and I am sure we would have concluded on our plan of action by then,’’ said Chinyama.
Gwindi is understood to be one of the people eyeing the Zifa presidency during the association’s board elections scheduled for the end of next month and his conviction by the disciplinary committee will not impact on his eligibility for elections should he either successfully appeal against the ruling or serve his term by meeting the conditions of his sentence.

This is because the Zifa constitution, which was amended last year and registered with Fifa and the Sport and Recreation Commission, states that only those who would have been convicted in a national criminal court of law would be barred from seeking to be nominated.

Article 32:4 of the new Zifa constitution states that:
“The members of the executive shall already have been in active football administration for at least five years, must not have been previously found guilty of a criminal offence as defined under national criminal law and have residency within the territory of Zifa,’’ reads the constitution.

The fortnight within which Gwindi was given to satisfy in the judgment, also leaves him with time to regularise his candidature should he want to stand for elections on the Zifa board.

A clause in the Zifa constitution leaves Gwindi with time to file his candidature as this must be sent to the association’s secretariat at least 30 before the date of the elective assembly’s indaba,

Article 32: 7 of states that:
“Candidatures must be sent to the general secretariat of Zifa at least 30 days before the date of the congress. The official list of candidates must be passed to the members of Zifa for the congress at which cranial court of law

In the ruling delivered by the disciplinary committee, Gwindi was given a fortnight from the day of the judgment to meet two key conditions of his ban.
The Sunshine Boys’ chairman was found guilty of bringing the game into disrepute following his public utterances in which he allegedly denigrated Zifa, the Premier Soccer League’s sponsors Delta Beverages’ sponsorship package to the top-flight body and former Zifa technical advisor and short-lived Warriors coach Klaus Dieter Pagels.

But parts of his five-year sentence were set aside for various conditions which Gwindi would have to meet and it is likely that it is those conditions which the PSL governor and his lawyer are carefully studying.

The disciplinary committee, whose other members include former referee Wilfred Mukuna and lawyers Wilbert Mandinde, Musekiwa Mbanje and Watson Muchengeti, ruled that one year would be suspended on condition that Gwindi pays a fine of US$6 000 within a fortnight of the judgment.

Another year was also set aside on condition that Gwindi publicly apologises to Zifa, the PSL and the league’s sponsors.