Chronicle Editor
Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
CUSTODIANS of Zimbabwean football, Zifa councillors, have finally woken up from their slumber, drawing up a litany of charges that could lead to revocation of the mandate of the suspended national association’s executive committee.
The councillors wrote a petition calling for an extraordinary meeting which will be held on January 29.
It’s a bold move by the councillors to realise the power and authority they have in the running of football in the country and finally stand up against gross malpractice that has been happening right under their noses.
The Zifa secretariat announced that the overdue EGM will go ahead after 27 members, who make up more than one-third of the members of Zifa, appended their signatures on the petition calling for the meeting.
The bulk of those who signed the petition after realising that they have been sleeping on duty for a long time by failing to do checks and balances while the Zifa board flouted its mandate, were 17 Premiership board of governors, with the exception of Harare City.
The councillors, who demanded the meeting that will determine the fate of the suspended board deserve little praise.
One might argue that the toxic environment created by a despotic Zifa leadership that disregarded and usurped powers of the congress scared councillors who feared the risk of victimisation if they stood up, led to the delay in calling for an EGM.
That the suspended Zifa board went for a whole of 2021 without organising a general assembly is a cardinal sin.
How then have they been operating? Whose mandate were they serving? How were the councillors, whose role is to superintend or supervise the executive, manage to oversee and review the performance of the board?
Without reviewing the year, without running checks and balances of the board, the suspended executive could have abused office knowing that no one can hold them accountable since there were no meetings.
The last time they held a general meeting was at the end of December 2020 when they said they were going to call a meeting in March 2021, but that never happened.
When they announced that their next meeting was in March 2021, the Zifa executive had just displayed their disregard of Zifa organs, showing that their standing committees didn’t function properly. This was after a councillor had asked why the association’s vice-president Gift Banda was absent when his appeal had been successful.
That the executive committee members could ignore the outcome of a judiciary committee in relation to Banda’ case shows that they had no respect for any organ of the association.
In the charges against the board, the councillors were concerned that heading into an elective year, Zifa still had not appointed an electoral committee.
But besides the electoral committee, were committees like the audit and ethics every operational?
What is clear in terms of councillors’ concerns is that the football association is dysfunctional.
In 2019, Zimbabwe were embarrassingly walked over at home by Zambia in a Women’s Olympic qualifier when the Mighty Warriors withdraw from camp hours before kick-off over pay and conditions.
It’s unheard of to be walked over at home and yet the Zifa executive saw nothing wrong with that.
The country was kicked out of the Cosafa Under-17 tournament after reportedly taking overaged players and nothing was done to those responsible for putting the name of the country into disrepute.
Just to show that arrogance had crept into the Zifa board, by the time they were suspended by the SRC on November 16, they were yet to appoint a national team coach for the Afcon finals. Maybe they had their programme of action, but the timelines were tight.
But the final straw could have been allegations of sexual harassment and match fixing, which are serious by nature.
But in the absence of a general meeting where councillors could have discussed the matter, maybe the accused should have faced the disciplinary or ethics committee. Members of the Zifa congress said they have good cause to believe that the suspended executive committee committed various offences and brought the name of the association into dispute.
Zifa president Felton Kamambo was charged with:
1. Failure to call for an AGM.
2. Subsequent failure to appoint Zifa electoral committee.
3. Diverting of Covid-19 funds for other uses other than as was agreed at the AGM. The AGM had resolved that the Covid-19 funds would be used specifically to help with the resumption of football by paying for Covid-19 tests and referees fees.
4. Failure to manage stakeholder relations and embarking on actions which have put the whole Zifa into disrepute. Embarking on an endless fights with SRC instead of pursuing dialogue.
5. The congress is deeply concerned with the manner in which you have handled charges of sexual allegation levelled against one of your members. You clearly chose to protect your board member instead of football.
6. The congress is further concerned that the allegations of a matchfixing nature have gone unchecked, whereas such allegations have an impact of denting the spirit of competition within our game.
7. Your board usurped the powers of the congress and in the process created Rural Leagues, without the knowledge and approval of the congress.
8. We further note that your board distributed football equipment to the said Rural Leagues, which equipment ought to have been distributed to Zifa bona fide members.
“It is in the view of the above ommissions and or commissions that the members of congress are requesting you to appear before it in the EGM and respond to the highlighted allegations and show cause why congress should not revoke the mandate bestowed on you as Zifa president,” read the charges sent to suspended members in a letter dated December 31, 2021.
Zifa board member responsible for finance Philemon Machana had two charges.
“We further note that your team, conduit, which was duly relegated at the end of the 2019 soccer season, was brought back to the PSL against principles of fair play and standing orders governing the said league. The said team, was duly paid Covid-19 relief funds from Zifa.
“You failed to circulate an audited financial statement and budget to the assembly members,” read charges in a letter to Machana. – @ZililoR
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