admin
Sikhumbuzo Moyo Senior Sports Reporter
THE government has instructed the Sports and Recreation Commission to intervene and investigate the suspension of the Zimbabwe Women Football chairperson Miriam Sibanda by an illegal women football councillors’ meeting last week.Sibanda was suspended together with two board members Ben Mamoshe and Edwin Magosvongwe over a raft of charges which now include bribery.
Charges against Sibanda, Mamoshe and Magosvongwe ranged from trying to overthrow a legitimately elected Zifa president, trying to incite the government to intervene in the running of football and ultimately lead to the country being banned by Fifa.
Sibanda is also accused of fanning factionalism in Zimbabwe football and launching attacks on Cuthbert Dube and Zifa chief executive officer Jonathan Mashingaidze as well as the technical director Takaendesa Jongwe.
Stunned by Zifa president Cuthbert Dube’s endorsement of the suspension when he referred the case to the Zifa Disciplinary Committee on Monday, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Andrew Langa yesterday was fuming over the unending personality clashes in the Zifa board which he described as “very unfortunate”.
“It’s a very unfortunate situation, after my meeting with them (Zifa board) last month, I honestly didn’t expect that there could still be such unnecessary squabbles within the board,” said Minister Langa.
“After reading all this in the papers, I’ve since instructed the SRC to investigate and advise us forthwith before we can make a statement about all this”.
The Minister said it was now clear before all that football will be the biggest loser at the end of the day because of all these unnecessary fights.
“This isn’t building football at all, it’s actually destroying football, I’m hopeful before the end of the week, the SRC would’ve come back to us after which we’ll make our position clear based on an informed position,” said Minister Langa.
The SRC, the country’s supreme sports body, has already described Zifa as an organisation that has collapsed.
After the suspension of Sibanda, her former vice, Elizabeth Langa was installed as the acting women football chairperson and recommendations have already been made to have her sit on the Zifa board.
Online Reporter