Suspended referees’ boss fights back

the administration amid reports that a bigger storm has erupted in the Central Region that has been reeling from corruption scandals.

The scandals are centred on a shadowy plot to determine which Division One team should be promoted into the Premier Soccer League at the end of this season. Such is the intensity of the problems that have rocked the Central Region that Zifa vice-president Ndumiso Gumede, who is also the acting Zifa Referees committee chairman, has revealed that he has received serious threats on his life after his committee bust the corruption scam.
A Zifa Central Region disciplinary committee last week stripped Gweru outfit Hardbody of the Division One championship for allegedly using an improperly registered

player with the team being docked 42 points.
This had paved the way for second-placed Tripple B to be promoted into the Premiership but they too appear to have their own skeletons in their cupboard following complaints this week by Chapungu that they also used an ineligible player – Witness Nyamutsaka – during some of their league games.

Gumede chaired that indaba, which was convened following due notices sent out by the committee’s secretary Tendai Bwanya, where Silengane was suspended.
But Silengane, adamant that she is clean, on Tuesday took to her lawyers – Moyo and Nyoni legal practitioners – to challenge her suspension.
“We act under instructions of Ms Silengane. Our client has given us a letter dated November 21, 2011 addressed to her and written by Mr. Ndumiso Gumede in his capacity as acting chairman of the Zifa Referees Committee. We are under instructions to respond to that letter.

“Our client informs us that she is the vice-chairperson of the Zifa Referees Committee. On November 19, 2011 in the early hours of the morning she received a text message from Mr. Tendai Bwanya informing her that there was going to be a meeting of the Zifa Referees Committee at the Zifa offices in Bulawayo on the same day at 8am.

“We have perused the Zifa Referees Committee rules and regulations as regards meetings for this committee. We note that in terms of clause 4(a) of the rules and regulations a meeting must be held after members have been given at least four weeks’ notice of the meeting.
“In terms of clause 4 ©, an emergency meeting may be called at the request of at least three members and must be held within 7 days of the request. Further an agenda shall be circulated to members of the committee no less than 7 days before an ordinary meeting.

“The meeting of November 19, 2011 was irregular in that no notice of the meeting was given.
“The meeting had no agenda, it was not an emergency meeting as no 3 members had requested for it.
“In his letter Mr. Gumede says that our client has been suspended sine die from the committee and can no longer take part in any activities organised by Zifa.

“We have noted that neither Mr. Gumede nor the committee has the jurisdiction or power to suspend our client. The committee’s power derives from the rules and regulations and the Zifa constitution.

“In both these documents there is no authority given to the committee or Mr. Gumede to suspend our client from the committee nor from any activities involving Zifa.
“As such the letter is null and void as it as ultra vires the powers granted to committee,” read part of the letter from the lawyers. Gumede, who claimed that he had been receiving a number of calls warning him about his security and threatening him to stop his probe on corruption in the Midlands, however insisted that his committee had acted within its mandate in convening the November 19 indaba.

The Zifa vice-president cited clause 4 (b) of the same rules and regulations which state that: The chairman may call administrative meetings with those members immediately available.

The other members shall be notified of any action taken as a result of such meetings”. Gumede said he had been surprised to find that Silengane was now turning around and claiming she was not aware of the meeting charging that the Women’s football administrator had not been expecting Nyoni to accuse her of misconduct.