adminHOW Mine’s trip to Nigeria has exposed Zifa councillors amid reluctance on their part to accompany the team in favour of taking part in the lucrative business of voting for the association’s president and board members in elections set for Saturday.
Matabeleland North provincial chairman Dennis Tshuma was originally expected to accompany the miners to Nigeria, where they face Bayelsa United in a Caf Confederation Cup tie this weekend, but last-minute changes saw the team being led by Robert Tembo.
Tembo is the vice-chairman of Harare province and, given that he wasn’t set to vote in the weekend elections, where only the provincial chairmen cast their votes, he was deemed surplus to requirements in the polls.
Tshuma is widely considered to be an ally of Zifa president Cuthbert Dube and was one of the councillors who quickly backed the association’s decision to charge exorbitant nomination fees for the elections.
Had Tshuma travelled with How Mine, it would have been a vote lost for one of the camps in the battle for the Zifa presidency given there were no guarantees that his replacement would have voted according to design.
The Zifa elections have been a lucrative pasture for some councillors, some of whom reportedly bought cars after the 2010 elections.
A trip to Nigeria would see the head of delegation getting about US$500 for the duration of the trip, far less from the huge amounts that some voters have been promised so as to deliver the right vote.
Tembo yesterday caused a stir just before the team departed when he came out guns blazing describing club chairman Mlondolozi Nkomo as a nonentity in football.
Tembo was frantically trying to prove that he deserved to lead the club against Bayelsa United.
“I am not new in football, in fact I have been there longer than the so called How Mine chairman whom I don’t even know,” fumed Tembo who was holding a local newspaper that had carried a story on the confusion surrounding the identity of the How Mine head of delegation.
“I have not been handpicked from the streets, I am an experienced football person.”
Zifa spokesman Xolisani Gwesela said the choice of the head of delegation was at the discretion of the association.
Nkomo had said they had been given the name of Tshuma as their head of delegation only to get a text message from Tembo informing them that he would be the head of delegation.
Tembo confirmed that he was informed of the trip on Monday afternoon.
Yesterday Nkomo reiterated his position.
“I don’t know this guy (Tembo), what worries me is that Zifa failed to tell us the name of the HOD after initial communication from Mandaza (Musa). Tembo just sent a text asking for an air ticket from us and it’s unfortunate if he says such things about me yet we will be travelling together,” said Nkomo. — Sports Reporter/Bulawayo Bureau
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