adminChris Sambo Sports Correspondent
IN Nyanja they have a saying “chaona munzako chapita, mawa chili kwaiwe,” which means that we should never celebrate the downfall of others because, tomorrow, you could be the one on the receiving end.
However, as the football family, we can only declare that we are celebrating the departure, or is it downfall, of our former Minister, Andrew Langa.
The first mistake that Langa did was to issue a statement certifying the elections that brought Cuthbert Dube into office despite the polls being condemned by all progressive forces in our football.
Upon taking office, at a time when other Ministers were reviewing the performance of the Boards of Directors of parastatals and other organisations within their areas of responsibility, Langa failed to review the performance of the Sports Commission.
This was despite the criticism that the Sports Commission was receiving from all stakeholders in various sporting disciplines and, in particular, those in football.
As the Lifelong Footballers Trust, we held a meeting with Langa at his offices, which was also attended by officials from the Sports Commission.
We advised him that as a way of dealing with the crisis facing football he should invoke Section 38 of the Sports Commission Act which empowered him to de-register a national sporting association which would have failed to submit audited accounts.
We told him that ZIFA had not been submitting audited accounts for over five years, at the time of our meeting, and it was time for the Ministry to act.
Because of this provision within our laws, FIFA would have not termed this as government interference in the administration of the game.
The ZIFA constitution acknowledges that the organisation is governed by the laws of Zimbabwe.
Despite his Deputy Minister saying that we should take this route, where ZIFA needed to be de-registered, Langa did not support us.
At a time when stakeholders were calling for transparency and accountability at ZIFA, Langa found himself, under very unclear circumstances, having his trip to the 2014 World Cup sponsored by the very Association he was supposed to call to account.
Many people felt that this badly compromised his position in dealing with ZIFA and they were not surprised when Langa remained indifferent to the issues affecting the Association after his controversial World Cup trip.
He watched from a distance as the ZIFA vice-president, board member responsible for finance and board member in charge of women football were suspended and, even up to this day, they are yet to appear before a disciplinary hearing.
And, when the Sports Commission instituted an enquiry into the state of football in Zimbabwe, there was nothing contained in the report that football stakeholders did not know.
We knew that Cuthbert Dube and his cabal were the biggest impediment to the development of our football and that, to find a way forward, they needed to go. Until his departure, our good Minister had not acted on the report. And, then we had the expulsion of Zimbabwe from the World Cup and our good Minister promised us, after meeting ZIFA, that things would be sorted out. Soon, other nations start the battle for a place in Russia and our Warriors are the only African nation who will not be part of the show.
Langa had a chance to save our football but he let us down, for reasons that only he knows, and we won’t shed a tear that he is gone.
Maybe, just maybe, this could be the change that saves our national game.
Chris Sambo is a former chief executive of the Premier Soccer League
Online Reporter