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Zimpapers Sports Hub
ZIFA Normalisation Committee chairman Lincoln Mutasa says the association’s headquarters in Harare had become inhabitable, forcing them to look for rented offices elsewhere.
Known as the Zifa House and located at 53 Livingstone, the association’s home was allegedly run down by previous regimes.
Since their appointment in July last year, the Zifa NC initially moved to Joina City, owned by Mutasa’s brother, and later moved to Belvedere.
One of Mutasa’s attributes as Dynamos chairman was to take the club into Real Estate, regarded as taboo by most in Zimbabwean football, but one of his first moves at Zifa was to take them from the Zifa House at 53 Livingstone into rented premises. In an interview on the Lovemore Banda Live You Tube channel, Mutasa explained why they abandoned their own property to incur rental bills elsewhere when they are on a mission to restore order in local football.
“There are a number of reasons but the primary reason is basically that 53 Livingstone was run down. It needs a new coat of paint, there is no borehole there and we need to put in a borehole.
“For the ablution, they were using water from a delivery truck that comes in a tank and the image was not right. We believe we wanted to create a new image, a new brand for football, that’s why we opted to rent this premise (in Belvedere) while we fix 53 Livingstone.
“It’s not only 53 Livingstone, we also have the Zifa Village. We were also going to do that up so that we can play football there and it can also be an administration block. This (Belvedere office) is a temporary residence but we wanted to create the right image.”
Before settling at the current Belvedere premises, Zifa had moved into Joina City in the Harare CBD, which is owned by his brother, Shingi, sparking claims that he was using Fifa funds to promote a ‘family’ business.
“How we came about this place . . . before we do anything we get authorisation from Fifa and we have to justify for everything that we do. So clearly we were aligned with Fifa as they were also not happy with 53 Livingstone. They felt the place was not really fit for human consumption (sic) because of the toilets and the vision that we had was to come out and redo it.
“When we realised that 53 Livingstone was where the secretariat was still housed, I opted to move into Joina City. We didn’t rent, I actually got a boardroom for us to, first of all, bond as a team. If you remember we were five people who had never seen each other, who had never worked together.
“Me, Miss Sanyamandwe (now Mrs Moyo by the way), Miss Mugadza, Ms Malaba came later and Mr SK Ndebele. I didn’t know any of them so it was important for us to also bond and fully strategise what we wanted to do, identify the nature of the challenges that were before us and this we could not do while housed at 53 Livingstone.
“So we moved ourselves out and then we started going into interrogating and examining all the things that needed to be examined at 53 Livingstone from that point. We even started then looking for accommodation where we could move. Once we got this place (Belvedere) it now became easy for us to restructure the secretariat and move forward.”
Asked if it did not worry him that people were concerned by the conflict of interest in moving to Joina City owned by his brother at a time he was appointed to cleanse Zifa of, among other things, corruption and nepotism, Mutasa said:
“No, it does not worry me because if people were to find out, we didn’t pay a single cent of rent.
“This was just “My brother, I’ve got this challenge, help me, people are coming from different places, can I just have one boardroom for a while.” They were very magnanimous . . . they didn’t invoice us not one day, which is what I think people were worried about that maybe we were going back to old habits . . . I think the previous chairman used to have his own offices housing Zifa. No, this wasn’t the case, this was genuinely a donation to try and help get football back on its feet.”
Mutasa said the Zifa secretariat will eventually move back to properties owned by the association. “It will either be 53 Livingstone or the Zifa Village. Already when we get 53 Livingstone sorted out, when we get the water sorted out . . . we have the Northern Region there but it is, right now, earmarked for the Women’s Premier League as well as the referees’ desk and women’s desk.
They are all going to be there.
“The Technical Director’s department is more likely to eventually move to the Zifa Village.”
He added that they have a vision to turn Zifa Village into a multi-purpose football complex.
“Our vision is, if we could persuade the government to allocate us the land below the village it would be a nice place to put up a stadium there. But just to concentrate on our immediate area, we are wanting to resurface the astro turf, remember we had an astro turf auctioned some years back.
We would like to redo that, then the accommodation wing to actually continue and house the TD department but having rooms for players to come in. “And then the administration to move over to the other side, we would like to set up an administration block and have a number of pitches. We have had engineers come in, they have surveyed it and have come up with various recommendations, so there is work taking place.”
Online Reporter