Online Reporter
Petros Kausiyo
Zimpapers Sports Hub
FOR the first time since their election into office 15 months ago, Zimbabwe’s football parliament — the ZIFA Congress — converge in Harare this morning for their annual meeting amid the good times that have been rolling in the country’s flagship sport.
ZIFA’s transformative journey from an association loathed by both the corporate world and the ordinary citizens has exceeded expectations with the Nqobile Magwizi leadership literally moving mountains in turning on a new leaf in the governance of football.
Magwizi and his team have managed to win back the crucial confidence of corporate partners while inculcating a culture of accountability and transparency that has cascaded down to affiliate members.
Even capacity-building initiatives, key among them the long-suspended coaching courses are back while the vital platform upon which the sustainability of any sport is built — junior development — is back and functional.
The development initiatives spread across the country have also received backing via the BancABC Roots Impact programme.
The Football Association’s flagship knock-out tournament is back on the radar, albeit with a bigger sponsor-ship, US$5 million annually and broader national outreach and will be known as the ZIFA Munhumutapa Challenge Cup.
Along the way since January 25 last year, when they were voted into office, both the executive committee and their members have also encountered challenges, made mistakes, some of them attributed to baby steps but, have crucially, been a united body.
It is against this background that ZIFA acting General Secretary Norman Gwangwadza is optimistic of a lively and successful indaba.
The ordinary congress also comes on the back of a hectic year in which ZIFA successfully staged the Boys COSAFA Under-17 tournament, the CAF Girls Under-17 GIFT Cup and the CAF African Schools Football Championship finals.
Magwizi and his deputies Loveness Mukura and Kenny Ndebele and their board also fulfilled a key FIFA requirement that was linked to Zimbabwe’s re-admission into the international football family, which was to hold elections for an expanded congress, under an amended constitution. This morning that newly-constituted ZIFA Congress will be meeting under one roof following a series of elections that saw old and new councillors being voted into office.
They too will use the indaba to take stock of the period they have been in office with Magwizi’s activity report expected to set the tone for deliberations as ZIFA continues to pursue reforms, strengthen governance structures and drive development across all facets of the game.
“We are ready for Congress and looking forward to a productive meeting with our delegates,” Gwangwadza told the ZIFA website.
“This is an important moment for the association to give an account of the work done in 2025 and to present the plans that will guide our operations in the coming year.”
Gwangwadza added that the indaba was an important part of maintaining transparency and strengthening the relationship between the leadership of the association and its membership.
Beyond the formal business of the day, the gathering also represents an important moment of unity for Zimbabwean football, bringing together stakeholders under one roof to consider both achievements and challenges, and to collectively shape the future of the game.
ZIFA conformed as much in a statement earlier this week. “As the supreme gathering of ZIFA’s membership, Congress remains a key platform for reflection, accountability and strategic direction.
“It allows delegates from across the football family to review progress made over the past year and engage with the broader vision for the continued growth and transformation of the game in Zimbabwe.
New Central Region Area Zone chairman Xolisani Gwesela is one of the participants relishing his maiden indaba as a ZIFA councillor.
For over a decade, Gwesela attended such Congress gatherings as a member of the secretariat before choosing to contest in the elections following his departure from the ZIFA office.
“For someone like me, attending my first ZIFA Congress as a councillor is surreal,’’ Gwesela told Zimpapers Sports Hub yesterday.
“As might be common knowledge, I served in the ZIFA secretariat in different capacities for a long time. “I started off as the communications manager, then doubled as competitions manager before moving up to chief operations officer and later acting chief executive Officer.
“I must admit that the speed with which the exco that was elected in January last year, has moved to transform ZIFA and make it a respected organisation that has scored many achievements in a short period has been amazing.” Gwesela also welcomed the initiatives that have been taken by ZIFA to revive grassroots football.
“The previous executives had long abandoned junior football, even withdrawing our teams from regional and continental competitions to only focus on the Warriors and the Mighty Warriors.
“But from Area Zones right through to the PSL, one can see that real football is back and it is our duty as councillors to consolidate the gains we have seen and build on from there and I expect constructive debate with benchmarks to achieve when we meet tomorrow,’’ added Gwesela. Veteran administrators Wisdom Simba — Mashonaland East province chairman and his Mashonaland Central counterpart Edward Mutukwa have been in the football trenches long enough to have witnessed “the good, the bad and the ugly’’ of the domestic game and the duo is happy with the transformation they have seen in just 15 months of the initial four-year journey.
“It is indeed a very refreshing AGM . . . the preparations official updates of this indaba among other things have been regular.
“The president and his board have made some milestone achievements the Banc ABC Roots Impact for the juniors and the long-awaited ZIFA Munhumutapa Challenge Cup. The participation of the youths in various tournaments as well as the hosting of these major tournaments. We have since received the audited financial statements which are very clear. We are going into this AGM knowing very well what is there in our finances. Generally everything is well and I am happy to be part of these achievements,” Simba said.
Former Black Rhinos chairman Mutukwa noted the marked improvement in ZIFA’s transparency.
“In the history of our football administration, this is an Exco that has demonstrated a high degree of accountability, transparency and a resolve to do away with individual interests but rather organisational and national interests.
“They have created an environment which has attracted corporate sponsors, hence the entry of BancABC, the government through ZIFA Munhumutapa Cup into football support.
“We have also seen massive participation of junior national teams (both men and women) whereas in the past the story was cancellations due to non-availability of funds,’’ Mutukwa said.
PSL expansion bid faces snag
Amid the excitement gripping the ZIFA family, a bid by the Premier Soccer League to seek an expansion of the top-flight while urging the conflation of the regions into a National First Division is set to suffer a still-birth on procedural flaws.
The PSL had written to ZIFA to try and have a change in the set-up of the national game and have 20 teams while proposing to have the four regional leagues collapsed into one Division One.
However, such a proposal requires a statutory amendment process to be followed, and today’s indaba is not the platform given that a ZIFA constitutional amendment committee to deliberate on the matter has not been convened and could not be hurriedly set up for an ordinary congress. But it is the resolve and the commitment by which the ZIFA councillors will take for the next year that will shape the destiny of national football.
