adminRicky Zililo Senior Sports Reporter
ZIFA Bulawayo Metropolitan Province have established a “loan club” after acting chairman Francis Ntutha and his executive were accused of lending themselves money meant for football operations.
Chronicle Sport has it on good authority that Ntutha awarded himself a $300 school fees loan on April 30 and signed a voucher at the insistence of the board member responsible for finance in the province Paradzai Matuka.
The money Ntutha took was from affiliation fees paid by clubs, most of which are struggling.
“This is just a tip of the iceberg because almost all executive members, present and past, have been giving themselves loans. They’re a law unto themselves and one wonders if they pay back the money they advance themselves as ‘loans’,” said a source.
“A forensic audit is needed to clean the rot because you can’t have the acting chairman of the province (Ntutha) giving himself a $300 loan saying it’s for school fees. Surely this is unfair to club owners, who individually bankroll their teams as they also have children to look after besides sponsoring football.”
A club official, who declined to be named for fear of reprisals, said what irks them is that the provincial officials are always on their case demanding affiliation fees before the start of the season.
Clubs in the Division Two and Three leagues, which are administered by the provincial leadership, each pay $770 in affiliation and registration fees.
“We’re struggling as clubs and when we ask for a review of affiliation fees, we’re told the province is struggling in terms of day-to-day operations and that Zifa head office also wants its share,” said a club official.
“As grassroots clubs, we’re the foundation for development of soccer, but it seems the very same people that want us to vote them into office on the pretext that they want to develop the game are milking clubs of the little resources. We would like to see Zifa president Philip Chiyangwa instituting a forensic audit so these selfish people are chucked out of our football,” the club official said.
Ntutha declined to comment on the matter and referred questions to Matuka.
“I haven’t seen the books for April because my understanding is that as board members, we only supervise and go (to the office) once a month or when necessary and not every day because we are not employees. I will be seeing the books on Saturday and after that I will be in a position to comment lest I mislead you,” said Matuka.
“I’m a professional person and will give you the information you need. But note, only when someone writes an application for pressing medical issues are they given a loan after the approval of the board,” he said.
However, a number of board members have been seen spending lots of time at the Zifa offices usurping the secretariat’s duties.
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