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Sikhumbuzo Moyo Senior Sports Reporter
ZIFA will punish officials within its executive committee and secretariat if a government audit team reveals financial irregularities in the handling of revenue generated in the recent Warriors’ African Nations Cup qualifier against Guinea. The audit process is expected to be finalised tomorrow or Monday morning, according to Zifa president Cuthbert Dube.
Early this week, former Minister of Sport, Andrew Langa, ordered the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) to seize Zifa books and carry out a forensic audit which they will then present to the ministry on Monday. Speaking in a rare interview with Chronicle Sport last night, Dube said the association has an image to protect and if the audit report reveals untoward financial behaviour by any member of his body and the secretariat, he will not hesitate to boot them out of 53 Livingstone Avenue, the Zifa headquarters.
“If indeed the audit process will reveal any financial misconduct as is being reported in the media, then certainly heads will roll. We can’t protect bad apples in the association. I wasn’t at Rufaro Stadium myself so it’ll be difficult to give a first hand account but no one will be spared. The audit process, as you correctly reported has already started and since it’s just for a single match, it shouldn’t take long at all,” said Dube.
Board member Tawengwa Hara has already spilled the beans after he publicly admitted that he was paid $400 which was brought to his hotel room by another board member John Phiri in the middle of the night. The money however is not reflecting on the association’s income and expenditure statement from the match.
The Bulawayo based lawyer, who is also the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League table toppers, Chicken Inn’s secretary general, said the money was for his travel costs from Bulawayo to Harare and back. However, sources said Hara and acting women football boss Elizabeth Langa’s air travel tickets were paid for by a Harare- based travel agent (name supplied) with close links to Zifa. The agent has since been reimbursed its money, which also is not reflecting on the discredited income and expenditure statement.
Fungai Chihuri, who is the acting board member finance, is alleged to have signed for $2,800 as board expenses and $1,200 as travel and subsistence. Asked why he was not reining in his all-powerful chief executive officer, Jonathan Mashingaidze, despite a number of complaints against him, Dube said his head of secretariat was not immune to persecution.
“I hear stories that I’m protecting Mashingaidze, what for? He’s not indispensable because if I do that I’ll be soiling my own name and public standing, something which is certainly not good for me. If we get any bit of evidence that he’s and has been astray then believe me, I’ll show him the door, make no mistake about that,” said Dube.
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