admin
Gumede, who leads a simple peasant life 68km from Bulawayo, was found by the news crew busy in his garden preparing for the new rainy season.
In an interview, Gumede said he would not seek re-election when his term expires in 2014. He said returning to soccer administration was something he had done reluctantly in 2010.
“I thought after being honoured by the City of Bulawayo in 2005 when I was bestowed with a Civic Honour, I did not need to come back to soccer lest I obliterate all the good work I have done for soccer and arts.
“But I found myself cornered by people who felt I could still be of service to the game and help Zifa move forward,” said Gumede.
“I blame myself for accepting to come back but after this term I will not be involved in soccer at a higher level again.”
He said his term was expiring in 2014 when new elections for a Zifa board will be held.
Gumede has not had the best of times in office as there has been a lot of fighting during his tenure.
A clique of soccer people some of them fingered in match-fixing allegations has made life difficult for him.
He has been used as a pawn in their fight for survival with the first step having been to try and use him to divide the Zifa board.
The first attempt was to paint him together with Gift Banda, Patrick Hokonya and Benedict Moyo as “regionalist” Zifa Assembly councillors.
The detractors used some gullible assembly members and the seeds of division got visible in soccer.
At one time Gumede travelled to Harare dressed as a woman as Asiagate masterminds threatened to arrest him on the way to the capital.
“It did not need to get to that,” said the former Highlanders chairman.
He described running Zifa as easy as going to a picnic. He said there was a lot of pressure in running Highlanders.
“Zifa is a picnic, it does not come anywhere near running a club like Highlanders, there is a lot more pressure there,” said Gumede.
He said his biggest regret was seeing Zimbabwe qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations and not being able to go to the tournament in 2004.
Gumede, a former Zifa chief executive officer, was sidelined by the Rafik Khan-led executive which rang changes at Zifa House with the respected administrator assigned the post of development manager.
He could not travel to the finals in that portfolio.
“My other regret other than not going to the Afcon 2004 finals was failure by the national team to qualify for the World Cup during my several stints at Zifa. I was hurt not to travel to the Tunisia Afcon finals when the team qualified when I was chief executive officer.
“Of course we failed to qualify in 2012 and 2013. It’s not good not to go to the finals in South Africa. The biggest challenge at Zifa is that when a new board comes in like I have seen since 1980 when I was part of the Zifa executive, somebody new comes in and forgets about the previous man’s development plans. So many have been left hanging since then as the new executive has not been for continuity,” said the man whose Just Play concept sponsored by Chompkins collapsed in the mid 2000s when he quit Zifa.
He said his next involvement in the game could be at an academy as he felt he was done with the rigours of competitive football.
Online Reporter