Perumal sang, we danced

Bothwell Mahlengwe
LAST week’s newspapers provided an interesting read about Raj Perumal’s CNN television interview. I believe it is a fact that the Warriors fell victim to a well-orchestrated Asian match-fixing syndicate. It is also a fact that Perumal was the chief orchestrator of that syndicate.

What is not a fact, and is still to be proven beyond reasonable doubt, is who among our former and current football people was involved.
You can’t say everyone was guilty, it doesn’t work that way.

Former ZIFA chief executive Henrietta Rushwaya has been mentioned as the alleged ringleader of this mess but when she was brought through our criminal justice system, to answer these charges, the case collapsed even before being put to her defence.

I think it is common knowledge that for one to be convicted for a crime, it should be proven beyond reasonable doubt that they committed that crime.

That accused person should be afforded a chance to plead and prove his/her innocence.
If they are not satisfied with the proceedings they are also afforded a platform to appeal their case at a higher level.
The manner in which Asiagate was investigated and “finalised” left a sour taste in the mouth.

The fact that there was need for an investigation and bringing the perpetrators to book was never disputed.
But what was in dispute was how it was done and many feel that it wasn’t done in a proper way.

Perumal had his say on CNN, not only about Zimbabwe but about South Africa, Finland, Bulgaria, you name them.
Interestingly, we are the only country whose media gave the interview acres of spaces on the back pages, there was virtual silence in South Africa, nothing in Europe and little in Asia.

Therein lies my argument.
When an entire nation, like ours, finds itself celebrating what a convicted criminal says, in a television interview in which he is being paid a fortune by CNN to give a show, then we have to look at ourselves in the mirror.

I’m not saying there is no substance in what Perumal is saying, but it’s his credibility that I’m concerned about and how he can pass the test, of providing evidence that can be deemed credible by a judge, given his background.

Let’s say, for argument’s sake, Perumal had come out and said I didn’t fix any game, what would be our reaction today – just about everyone would be dismissing him, on the basis of his lack of credibility.

As far as I know the concern here was and still is the way Zifa handled the process related to their investigations and disciplinary procedures and, in the process, everything was so messed up that their sanctions couldn’t be endorsed by Fifa.

Perumal’s story doesn’t in any way change the fact that a shoddy job was done in the investigation and prosecution of scores of individuals in this country. If Perumal says in his television interview that his tentacles had spread here from 2001 does this mean that we have to investigate every administrator who was at ZIFA in the past 13 years?

If we should do that, who among our current football leaders will not be subjects to investigation, those who can say that we were not in the picture during that period?

That period, interestingly, marks our most successful in terms of our national team as we qualified for the Nations Cup in 2004 and 2006.
Where we being aided by him and his Mafia then?

I feel that the task for this probe should have been given to the Sports Commission because it was impossible for ZIFA to undertake it without questions being asked about their impartiality. Maybe we should have asked Fifa, as is now the case with the South African pre-2010 World Cup friendlies, which were also fixed by Perumal and his syndicate, to investigate and come up with a report.

It’s sad that Asiagate is now being used as a trump card by our ZIFA leaders for their continued occupation of positions at the association.
Surprisingly, no tangible measures have been put in place by ZIFA to avoid the recurrence of a similar scam.

Only recently we heard those whispers that they even suspect that our two matches against Tanzania were compromised. Seriously?
Then they go on to disband the Warriors.
I ask myself, what does it mean to disband a national team?

Secondly, who do they think they are fooling when everyone knows that the Warriors would not be involved in any competitive assignment for the next two years?

In any case I don’t think it is wise to continue blaming Cuthbert Dube and Jonathan Mashingaidze.
They know their shortcomings and they have done their best to cover them up. The media and the football fraternity at large have done all they can to expose them but they continue to get the backing of the responsible authorities.
Dube even bragged in Parliament that we should thank him for bailing out the Warriors.

My question is how does Perumal’s television interview absolve ZIFA from the unprofessional manner they handled the investigations, prosecution and disciplinary issues related to the Asiagate scandal?

How does it justify the lives of scores of innocent young men they destroyed and the names they tainted because of their total disregard of laid-down rules and regulations?

Lesotho were in Malaysia, together with Zimbabwe for the same Merdeka tournament that has become a source of endless controversy, and they launched an investigation into their national team’s conduct on that tour after the authorities in that country became suspicious.

They handled it in a professional manner, they didn’t make it a show, and this weekend Lesotho will play in the group stages of the 2015 African Cup of Nations qualifiers.

Botswana had their fair share of problems, over these Asian tours around the same time our Warriors were going there, and they did their investigations, in a professional way, and fired the chief executive of their association and put their measures in place without making an international show.

This weekend they are playing in the group stages of the 2015 African Cup of Nations qualifiers. We are not playing in the 2015 African Cup of Nations group stage qualifiers because we have not been professional, in the way we have confronted similar challenges, and we have let it tear us apart.

Bothwell Mahlengwe is a banker and former Premiership footballer and can be contacted, for feedback, on the following e-mail: [email protected]