adminCharles Nhemachena the SRC director-general said this at the end of a two-day workshop on match-fixing and corruption organised by Cosafa which attracted delegates from Fifa and Interpol.
Match-fixing by illegal betting syndicates has since the last decade emerged as the biggest threat to the game. The workshop was a platform for English speaking countries from Cosafa to meet and share ideas and also find ways of dealing with the scourge of match-fixing.
The countries undertook to return to their respective bases and start work on awareness programmes.
Nhemachena said the SRC was fully aware of the challenges and constraints Zifa was facing.
He said it would be self-defeating to therefore expect the cash-strapped national association to go it alone in the fight against corruption in football.
“Our challenge is to go back home and get the whole nation to appreciate that match-fixing and corruption exist in sport.
“We will use the SRC, it will not be confined to football but will cover all sports disciplines.
“We will work out educational programmes meant to benefit all sportspersons.
“This issue is not a Zifa problem, the response should be national response. What measures we take to fight this scourge should have Government support,” said Nhemachena.
He also spoke about age-cheating which he said many did not realise was a form of corruption.
Nhemachena said age cheating should be nipped in the bud.
“It’s an issue we will have to address as a nation, we have to start at the bottom as these issues of age-cheating have a bearing on the result.
“Ethical values in sport have been eroded, we must inculcate ethics in our youths,” said Nhemachena.
He noted that sports legislation was not adequate in its present state.
He said there was need to come up with laws dealing specifically with sports under the national Anti-Corruption Act.
“Our legislation is inadequate when it comes to dealing with say issue of corruption in sports,” said, said Nhemachena.
The SRC director-general said once the whistle blower concept was adopted there would be need for a policy document on it to protect the identity of the blower.
He said a specific law to deal with sports crimes was possible.
He said that could come from the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture who would then engage the Anti-Corruption Commission.
“Under the Anti-Corruption Act the Minister can help craft penalties for certain offences,” said Nhemachena.
The Anti-Corruption Commission has together with Zifa been investigating allegations of match-fixing now referred to as Asiagate.
Ndumiso Gumede the Zifa vice-president said that they would consider engaging peer educators in their campaigns against match-fixing and corruption.
Gumede said they would come up with modules on corruption and match-fixing for all their training programmes.
Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe delegation met the Fifa head of security Ralf Mutschke at the weekend and impressed on him the need for the international football body to consider supporting Zifa financially.
Zifa’s committees have failed to finalise the Asiagate scandal in two years because of lack of funding.
Mutschke appeared to have dampened Zifa’s hopes of funding when he said no national association would be helped in investigating incidents of match-fixing.
Zimbabwe was the first country to be publicly associated with match-fixing after several national teams toured Asia and were allegedly paid to lose matches from 2007.
Officials of most of the countries that attended the workshop said they had not had cases of match-fixing involving their players, administrators and coaches.
“We impressed on him that Zimbabwe’s case was unique and we were advised to come up with a position paper,” said Jonathan Mashingaidze in an interview after the workshop.
Mutschke said the bulk of the $28 million given to Interpol would be used on training and development programmes meant to create awareness worldwide against match-fixing and corruption.
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