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FORMER Zifa chief executive officer Henrietta Rushwaya was yesterday handed another life ban from football after being found guilty of fixing matches in South Africa and those involving Zimbabwe’s 2015 African Nations Championships campaign. Zifa president Philip Chiyangwa yesterday announced the Zifa Disciplinary Committee had found Rushwaya and three others guilty of match fixing but information on the outcome of the process and how the match fixing actually took place were scant.
Former Zifa programmes officer Jonathan Musavengana was also handed a life ban while Edzai Kasinauyo and Ian Gorowa were given 10 year bans each with former Warriors assistant coach Nation Dube banished from the game for five years.
Ironically, Rushwaya was pardoned at the beginning of the year by the Chiyangwa-led administration but match fixing allegations against her resurfaced in March when a whistleblower approached Zifa with information on a syndicate that allegedly fixed matches in South Africa.
The allegations came at a time when Zimbabwe was scheduled to face Swaziland in back to back Afcon qualifiers. At the time Zifa revealed that a number of South Africa-based players were also heavily implicated in the scam that targeted matches in the South African Premiership and the Warriors but hearings in the neighbouring country absolved several footballers.
A dossier that contains tapped telephone conversations, e-mails and sworn affidavits was used to nail the suspects. Zifa reported that surveillance on the suspects had been going on for more than a month before it was decided that there was enough evidence to nail them and crucially to also ensure that the Warriors’ key 2017 Nations Cup qualifiers against Swaziland, during the Easter weekend, would not be compromised. Some of the cases are in court.
Online Reporter