adminPost Sports Correspondent
I followed with enthusiasm as the Head of State and Government, His Excellency President Robert Mugabe castigated the nefarious activities being orchestrated at the Zimbabwe Football Association by the ZIFA president, Cuthbert Dube and his cronies. A number of individuals including myself have on numerous occasions expressed displeasure over the manner Dube has been handling the affairs at 53 Livingstone house, Harare.
Yes, I am saying Dube because as the association’s president, he has to get credit when success is acheieved as well as shouldering the blame in bad times. After all, that is the essence of leadership. While the standards of soccer in Zimbabwe have gone down, a number of progressive Zimbabweans have been directing constructive criticism to Dube.
The man, however, appears to have developed a thick skin over the years to an extent he has turned himself into a rampaging bull, loaded with testosterone ready to use force to make his point by initiating among other unpopular tactics, hiring and firing coaches at will, failure to fulfill matches and of late, contributing to the suspension of the Warriors from taking part in the 2018 World Cup qualifying matches. ZIFA failed to pay former Warriors coach Valinhos a $60 000 salary.
Pasuwa’s appointment as Under 23 and senior national team coach
When the former Dynamos gaffer, Calisto Pasuwa got appointed as both the under 23 and the senior national teams coach, I received the development with mixed feelings, not because I doubted his capability as a coach, but I was concerned with the working conditions he was going to be subjected to. It is not because I hate ZIFA so much that I do not expect anything good from it, but an analysis of the entity’s relations with its previous coaches inspired me to have that kind of mindset.
In substantiating the claim, let me point out that a handful of coaches like Sunday Chidzambwa, the most decorated coach on the land so far, Charles Mhlauri, Norman Mapeza, Valinhos, Peter Dieter Pagels, Ian Gorowa and currently, Calisto Pasuwa – all are either owed money or they have on many occasions been subjected to inhuman treatment at the hands of this institution.
While at the helm of the technical team at Dynamos, Pasuwa bagged four league titles consecutively, becoming the only coach in Zimbabwe to make this momentous achievement and this alone enabled him to stand saliently above the rest in case of any competition for the same post from fellow coaches. Despite the fact that we virtually had no compact national teams both at the under 23 and senior levels due to the then famous disbandment by ZIFA, Pasuwa had a Herculean task of assembling competitive teams that were hungry for success and indeed, he gradually became a darling to soccer followers countrywide.
He has continued to grind results for the nation under very difficult conditions and the only biggest letdown, according to my own assessment of events obtaining on the ground, is the existence of uncomplimentary behavior on the part of ZIFA. While Pasuwa is producing good results for the nation, the same cannot be said about ZIFA as the man has so far endured unbearable hardships that include but not limited to, haphazardly camping before matches, bungled travelling arrangements and this reminds me of the Malawian trip where he and his contingent endured a long journey aboard a “Munorurama” bus.
As if that is not enough, the institution pulled another shocker as we are reliably informed that the national team coach, Pasuwa got detained as surety for ZIFA to pay the outstanding accommodation fees.
Interestingly, ZIFA swiftly moved in to declare that the entity had run a loss in the said encounter obviously in a desperate endeavour to justify Pasuwa’s detention.
Fortunately, Dube must be reminded that while he can fool a few, he cannot extend the same notion to all of us as we quickly picked that the organization doctored their financial records – all for their selfish gains.
On another aspect, I discovered that ZIFA struggled, and it is still struggling, to finance especially away assignments where travelling arrangements are done in a huff as if they were not aware of the fixtures beforehand. In most cases, they have had to rely on PHD Ministries Prophet Walter Magaya’s late intervention while most recently, the Government itself had to chip in to ensure the Comoros game got fulfilled.
I am not saying it is wrong to get financial aid from individuals such as Prophet Magaya and the government, all I am criticizing is the manner in which the whole thing is done. Those people need to move away from their reactive way of doing business and embrace the proactive approach in their dealings whereby we expect them to approach strategic people, companies or even the government seeking whatever assistance well before any game.
The World Cup qualifiers debacle
Typical of ZIFA, they hired the services of a foreign coach, Valinhos to be specific, obviously they employed him because they were capacitated to cater for his needs and demands in terms of salaries, allowances and other packages.
The man took charge of the senior national team after all parties gave nod to all contractual provisions before the coach was sacked for a string of poor results and typical of ZIFA, Valinhos departed a bitter man because ZIFA did not give him his dues.
Now, at the time ZIFA thought the issue had died a natural death, Valinhos pulled a shocker. He approached FIFA for recourse and the World Football governing body was just in a no- nonsense mood, it suspended Zimbabwe from the World Cup qualifiers.
Dube, in his capacity as the ZIFA President, assured the nation that definitely Zimbabwe was going to take part in the qualifiers before the then Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Andrew Langa ameliorated Dube’s assertions. Unfortunately for us all, the two appeared to have joined hands for a common cause – that of misleading the nation because Zimbabwe was eventually banned from the World Cup qualifiers.
What a shame for us especially if you can imagine a very tiny nation like Cape Verde with an estimated population of about 800 000 people will be taking part in the competitions while Zimbabwe will not.
The President’s intervention
When President Mugabe exposed the shenanigans taking place at ZIFA, I felt very much relieved because he is one man who leaves me green with envy especially on the issue of his principled stance on all matters. The President does not just talk, rather he believes in actions. He actually knows what needs to be done, and he does just like that. Consistently, just before a week had gone by, the President made a number a changes to his cabinet, and in particular, he substituted the less effective Langa with the seemingly young and energetic Makhosini Hlongwane in the Ministry of Sports and Recreation.
Now that the highest office on the land has set the tone for success, Minister Hlongwane, let us now start building from there.
As we now take a new trajectory in the quest to realign our deeds with the best practices, our expectations from Minister Hlongwane are simple. We just need a thorough cleansing whereby we are keen to witness the ZIFA board in its entirety together with the so called councilors getting relieved of their mandate, simply because they have collectively failed the nation.
As a panacea to the current leadership problem, I strongly suggest that it remains ideal for the nation to seek the services of someone who has played the game at the highest level with substantial intellectual aptitude to run such an institution with unquestionable managerial dexterity and acumen.
Zambia used this approach and boy-ooh boy, results are on the wall for everyone to see. Actually, we take unparelled umbrage in having such a national institution being run at the instigation of clueless miscreants who in their own myopic wisdom or lack thereof think cracking the whip with such nauseating regularity equates to sound and innovative leadership. Rosemary Mugadza and her technical department are the latest victims of the ZIFA’s archaic way of management. They just expect results to come their way without them investing money or even energy.
Just imagine, our own Warriors almost boycotted the recently held home game against Guine just because they were never addressed by any official from ZIFA pertaining to their monetary rewards.
The game was only played after Prophet Walter Magaya’s timely intervention.
Finally, I wish Minister Hlongwane the best in his policy formulation and its subsequent assimilation as he positions himself in taking us out of this current quagmire in as far as our aspirations as a soccer loving nation is concerned.
Online Reporter