Supporters association hails Zifa investigation

Disciplinary Committee to bring to a close the Asiagate saga, which has been dragging on for the past year.
The seven-member committee, led by retired Supreme Court judge Justice Ebrahim, was commissioned by Zifa president Cuthbert Dube in Harare on Monday and is expected to conduct hearings for individuals implicated in the match-fixing scam.
ZNSSA leader, Eddie “Mboma” Nyatanga, yesterday said Zifa had brought in a group of men who had reputations to protect and who were expected to be as fair as possible on all the individuals implicated in the scam.
“The ZNSSA leadership congratulates the Zifa board, especially its president Cuthbert Dube, for the professional manner in which he continues to handle this Asiagate saga and we are happy that they have commissioned a judicial committee to close this chapter in our football,” said Nyatanga.
“We feel that this is a very positive move that will bring a lot of goodwill to Zifa after all the accusations and counter accusations that dogged the Asiagate investigations and the denials, from key people who gave evidence, that followed the publication of the report.
“We believe this group consists of men who have great reputations and they will provide as fair a hearing as possible to anyone who will be called in to testify.
“We are also impressed by the fact that Zifa have invested heavily in people who have a lot of experience in the fields that are being explored and Advocate Lewis Uriri distinguished himself when he represented Twine Phiri in his battle against CAPS Holdings while Tererai Gunje has been in football for a long time.
“As supporters we can hardly wait for the day that this country will finally close the Asiagate chapter and we embrace a new era in our game because we feel that our game has suffered badly from the shadow of the Asiagate saga.”
Nyatanga said it was important that the committee demonstrated its independence, because a lot of things rested on their decisions, rather than just taking instructions from certain members of the Zifa board.
“There is a lot of politics in our football and there are quite a number of people who feel that Asiagate has been used as a ready weapon to settle scores and we are thrilled that a judge and lawyers have come on board to show that people can be given a chance to defend themselves,” said Nyatanga.
“We will wait and see what happens but we are positive that there won’t be the same circus that followed the publication of the first report where some people were somehow said to have been in two places at one time.”