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Robson Sharuko on Saturday
JEALOUSY Mawarire cut his journalism milk teeth at Herald House, working for The Sunday Mail, but perfected his writing skills elsewhere, at The Tribune and The Mirror, before plunging into the trenches of the politics of monitoring elections and democracy.For all his work in journalism and in politics, Mawarire made his biggest mark, on the nation, in the courtroom last year when his Constitutional Court application, made a defining impact on the harmonised elections.
Mawarire argued, in his application, that there was a risk the Constitution of Zimbabwe could be violated, if an election date wasn’t proclaimed, before the expiry of the life of Parliament on June 29 last year.
Here was a mere voter, in the Zaka East Parliamentary Constituency, taking on the political and legal establishment in this country, petitioning the Constitutional Court for an order for a date to be proclaimed for the holding of the harmonised elections not later than June 29, 2013.
He won many small, but significant, battles along the way — the main one being to convince the court that his application was urgent, which was key for the issues to be heard within the shortest possible time, he took on the country’s best possible legal brains and, in the end, he prevailed.
Whether Mawarire was a proxy of a certain political party, or not, is irrelevant because, what matters, is that he fought for the right cause — to prevent an entire political, legal and legislative establishment from making a mockery of the constitution, the nation’s founding document, which lays out a set of values that this country stands for.
His application prevented the flagrant violation of the country’s constitution and the danger was that if you could allow it to be abused, in the election of the President and the lawmakers, then you were setting a very bad precedent in as the respect of everything that this framework of fundamental principles stands for is concerned.
How then would the same constitution stand the test, in the event a cheeky robber or serial rapist rejected it, on the basis of precedent, since it had been violated before, and a flawed system was used to elect the very Justice Minister, under whose watch, the justice delivery system was now being used to try the robber or rapist?
Every time I see what is happening in the Zifa election season, the madness, the politics, the allegations and counter allegations and, crucially, claims that there are violations of the very constitution that the association came up with as the bible that will guide all their operations, the more that I feel our football is crying out for its Jealousy Mawarire.
That person, with foresight, like Mawarire, to take on an entire establishment, for the sake of the preservation of the nation’s founding document and everything that it represents, who can fight for our football to respect the very constitution that should guide its operations, for Zifa to respect the very document that should define their existence.
Maybe, we need Mawarire himself, as an ordinary football fan, to ask his lawyers to have a look at the new Zifa constitution and the Zifa Electoral Code and to see whether there is substance in issues that have been raised by Saidi Sangula, a lawyer who cannot risk his reputation by making wild claims, that the constitution has been badly violated in this election season.
Mawarire is the executive director and founding trustee for the Centre of Elections and Democracy in Southern Africa and the Zifa elections, by virtue of the impact that they have on millions of Zimbabweans who look at this sporting discipline as their national sport, should also be a part of the areas that they monitor because the delivery of credible elections, and the upholding of democracy, cannot start and end with national politics.
I have a feeling that if the elections for the Zifa presidency and board members were open to all Zimbabweans, not just those councillors, including some who have been in those corridors before Knowledge Musona was born, we would have as many people, casting their vote, as those who also voted in the harmonised elections.
That is the power that football has, especially in this country, and when you have just one club, making claims that it has seven million fans, telling us that that one in every two Zimbabweans you meet are supporters of Dynamos, which is half our population, half of the remaining half support the other clubs, which means a quarter of our population, and the other quarter isn’t interested in the game and, if they had, chances are that they would be in their corner, it signifies something.
When Mawarire approached the courts he said that he had failed to interpret the Zimbabwe Constitution’s position on election dates for the harmonised elections, taking into account the looming expiry of the life of parliament, and he was turning to the courts, who are expected to be the authorities, to provide him with guidance.
So, someone can then have a case, in the current confusion brought about by Sangula’s questions, and Jonathan Mashingaidze’s answers, to approach the High Court or Constitutional Court, on the basis that he is failing to interpret the Zifa Constitution’s position on its elections, who can make the Electoral Committee, who cannot, and — just like Mawarire — wants guidance on what is the right position.
Given that the Zifa Electoral Code has already been lodged in the High Court in Bulawayo, by the association itself in its defence against an application in which someone wanted to stop the provincial elections in that part of the country, which was dismissed for lack of merit since it based its roots on the flawed argument that the Constitution hadn’t been registered with the Sports Commission, it means that it has become a paper of record, for any court in this country, to use.
The Questions That Won’t Go Away
So, someone like Mawarire, or maybe Mawarire himself, would then ask:
If the Zifa Electoral Code says, in Article 5, (1), THE (ZIFA ELECTORAL) COMMITTEE SHALL BE COMPOSED OF EIGHT MEMBERS, why are Zifa holding the elections using an Electoral Committee that has TWELVE MEMBERS and, isn’t doing so, a violation of the Code and the Constitution?
If the Zifa Electoral Code says, in Article 5, (2), THE (ZIFA ELECTORAL) COMMITTEE COMPRISES (a) A CHAIRMAN; (b)A DEPUTY CHAIRMAN; (c) SIX MEMBERS, which once again supports that the members can ONLY BE EIGHT, why are Zifa holding the elections using an Electoral Committee that has TWELVE MEMBERS and, isn’t doing so, a violation of the Code and the Constitution?
Surely even a Grade Zero kid can read that the number of these people, who make up the Zifa Electoral Committee — Tendai Madzorera, Kennedy Sibanda, Cornelius Bwanya, Passious Masunda, Sello Nare, Musekiwa Mbanje, Elizabeth Banda, Tinofara Hove, Tachiwana Nyahuma, Charles Sibanda, Ralph Maganga, Jonathan Mashingaidze — and you don’t need to be very religious to see that, just like the disciples, they are 12 in number.
If the Zifa Electoral Code says, in Article 3,(ii), the members of Electoral Committee must, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, BE MEMBERS OF THE EXECUTIVE OR LEGAL BODY OF ZIFA, why then did Zifa appoint Ralph Maganga, into that Electoral Committee when his membership of a legal body of the association, by virtue of being their legal representative, clearly violates this key provision?
Why then did Zifa let Maganga run the Southern Regional elections, as the returning officer, when the Electoral Code of the association, being used in the current elections as adopted when the new Zifa Constitution was registered with the Sports Commission on November 18 last year, outlaws his holding of such a role?
If the Zifa Electoral Code, in Article 3,(iii),says, THE MEMBERS OF THE ELECTORALCOMMITTEE SHALL BE BONA FIDE MEMBERS OF ZIFA, and Article 10 of the Constitution defines who qualifies to be called members of Zifa, there are a number of people on that Electoral Committee who can’t qualify for such membership and would need the approval of Congress for such membership to be conferred, why are they part of the committee when their admission wasn’t confirmed?
Was it right for the provincial elections, held on January 26, to precede the Area Zones, something like having the Zifa board and presidency elections starting before the regional and PSL polls when these structures provide the electorate that votes for the board and the presidency and can we just ignore it because Maganga told Chronicle Sport “they could not hold the whole election process to ransom because of the Area Zones whose house was not in order?”
And, surely, since Maganga concedes that “procedurally they (Area Zones) were supposed to vote (for provincial office bearers) but because no one from their sector had been voted into office, the Electoral College saw it fit to bar them from participating,” can we all sit down, with the disenfranchisement of that entire bloc, which is the foundation, and claim that we are delivering a credible election?
Is it possible for the Zifa Electoral Committee to say that the PSL House is not in order and therefore their 16 delegates at the Zifa Assembly won’t vote in the poll for the Zifa board and presidency and, still, expect such a poll to be credible?
Isn’t it very clear now that this means that the provincial elections, delivered without the input of the Area Zones, are NULL AND VOID, and the regional elections, delivered with the input of provincial delegates whose status is clearly compromised without the input of the Area Zones in the polls, are also NULL AND VOID?
Maybe this doesn’t even need another Jealousy Mawarire, doesn’t even need a High Court judge to waste his time given that the flaws are so glaring that, a reasonable organisation, and in this case we are giving Zifa the benefit of doubt that they barely deserve, will stop this whole charade, acknowledge that they have badly messed up and go to Fifa, as the mother body, and ask for guidance.
Why It’s Difficult To Trust Zifa’s Argument
Mashingaidze insists, in his letter to SRC director-general Charles Nhemachena this week, that his association isn’t violating any provisions of their constitution in the way they are conducting their elections but, crucially, doesn’t answer why their Electoral Committee has 12 instead of eight people and glosses over the subject of who should be called a Zifa member.
On the Electoral Committee, there are two Zifa Life Members, Passious Masunda and Cornelius Bwanya, both getting the honour for their outstanding contribution to the domestic game in the past and the very fact that the association hasn’t bestowed life member status, on people who have never been a part of the game, should enlighten Mashingaidze that a difference does exist between a Zifa member and non-member.
Therefore, if the Electoral Code says that only bona-fide Zifa members can be part of the Electoral Committee, why then is the Zifa chief trying to suggest that they have the freedom to pick every Jack and Jill on the street, or any man or woman they want from outside the game, and make them members of that Electoral Committee?
It’s hard to trust either Zifa’s respect or its understanding of the statutes that govern their operations, as enshrined in their constitution, against a background of the alarming failures, in terms of compliance with the rules and regulations, which we saw in their handling of the Asiagate saga.
Two years ago, Fifa director of legal affairs Marco Villiger and the world body’s head of disciplinary and governance Marc Cavaliero wrote what has turned into a defining letter to Mashingaidze, after Zifa had advised the Zurich organisation that they had ‘banned’ a host of individuals over the case.
“Having said that and for the sake of clarity and avoidance of doubt we would like to ask you to inform us by return which authority rendered the decision(s) to sanction the players and officials you mention in your correspondence and to provide us by the same deadline with the aforementioned decision(s).
“Furthermore with regards to your request for global bans against individuals convicted of match-fixing and illegal betting involving Zimbabwe’s national teams and in order for us to be in a position to immediately extend the pertinent decisions to have worldwide effect according to Art. 136 of the FDC, we kindly ask you to provide us with the information related to the conditions established in Art. 137 of the FDC:
The person sanctioned has been cited properly
He has had the opportunity to state his case
The decision has been communicated properly (along with any documentary evidence establishing the foregoing)
Two years down the line, that simple test, which has to do with respecting the constitution, a simple disciplinary code and rules and regulations, hasn’t been passed and a massive exercise, which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, has run into a cul-de-sac.
Praying For The Multi-Million Dollar Game
Charles “CNN” Mabika, the doyen of football journalism in this country, bravely told ZBC viewers on Monday night, speaking on the weekly authoritative GamePlan magazine show, that he believes Dynamos will get a result in Kinshasa tomorrow to grab an unlikely ticket for a likely showdown against Kaizer Chiefs.
John Mokwetsi, the Alpha Media Holdings Online Editor, who won my respect for breaking barriers and declaring that he is a DeMbare fan, in an environment where the local football writers have adopted a culture of keeping their teams a secret (how I wish my beloved Falcon Gold, Bweraufe, were playing in the Premiership), and having the professionalism to say that his love affair will not blind him from the Glamour Boys’ shortcomings, famously said it’s part of his club’s DNA to have a crisis and then somehow perform beyond what’s expected of a crisis-ridden team.
I know that John, for all the crisis that engulfed the DeMbare camp this week, training time wasted, focus disrupted and the comedy of the players getting to the airport yesterday only to be advised that their air tickets hadn’t been secured, making the Glamour Boys look like a clone of the Warriors who are used to such chaos, remains bubbly that his team will deliver a result in Kinshasa.
For those of us, who have been watching from a distance as the local clubs drown in their sea of poverty, we are praying with the likes of John Mokwetsi, for Dynamos to get a result, because it opens the door to the first Multi-Million Dollar Game ever been played in this country.
Dynamos versus Chiefs, Rooney versus Musona, Pakamisa versus Parker, Simba versus Kingston, Katsande versus Devon, Jaure versus Mathoho, that’s a best-seller.
A capacity 60 000 fans at the National Sports Stadium, at an average of US$5 a ticket, a minimum of US$300 000 from gate receipts and then you bring in the sponsorship around that game, every company worth its salt coming on board, and that brings in another US$400 000, merchandise sale, and then the television rights, sell them, to SuperSport for US$1 million, and you have the first Multi-Million Dollar game.
All that is needed is for the Glamour Boys to produce a result in Kinshasa, one similar to that day when they visited FC Lupopo and won 1-0 there, and all their financial challenges could disappear, in just one mega-game, against Chiefs.
One Warriors’ fan reminded me this week that his team lost 0-3 at home to Brazil and Bafana Bafana lost 0-5 at home to the Samba Boys which, in his opinion, means that we fight better than our neighbours across the Limpopo and, for all our financial challenges, in his words “we aren’t a bunch of losers.”
Bring on the Amakhosi, I can hear him now, but first they have to clear the Kinshasa hurdle and it’s something that isn’t easy by any means.
To God Be The Glory!
Come on United !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chicharitooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
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