The Sunday Mail
EMBATTLED Zifa president Cuthbert Dube and is his sidekick Jonathan Mashingaidze are violating the association’s constitution by seeking to appoint Kallisto Pasuwa as the new Warriors gaffer without consulting the board.
Article 34(k) of the Zifa constitution states that the Zifa board — the executive committee — “shall appoint the coaches for the representative teams and other technical staff”.
It has emerged that Dube and Mashingaidze have sidelined the heavily divided board and have tasked Zifa technical director Maxwell Takaendesa Jongwe with convincing Pasuwa to double-up as Young Warriors and senior national team coach.
The unconstitutional move has not gone down well with a faction of the Zifa board that is against Dube’s continued reign.
However, the clique of vice-president Omega Sibanda, Premier Soccer League chairman Twine Phiri, women’s football boss Miriam Sibanda and board member finance Bernard Gwarada appears to have decided against speaking out; perhaps choosing to lose a battle while strategising to win the war.
“We are in a defining moment as far as the politics of Zifa are concerned. Cuthbert is desperate for the slightest excuse to fire any one of us so we will not give him that ammunition. Silence is golden at times.
“He knows the tide is changing and is looking at ways of getting rid of his perceived enemies as he knows that the game will change soon after the Fifa elections next month,” said a member of the clique.
The usually outspoken Sibanda became the first target of Dube’s purge last week when the Zimbabwe Women Football sought to suspend her under comical circumstances. The mulled suspension was expected to set into motion a ruthless cull that would have also seen Sibanda, Phiri and Gwarada being axed. However, Dube’s grand plan appears to have fallen flat with Sibanda still calling the shots and his former allies crossing the floor.
“They tried to use Miriam to test the waters and have since realised that life is not that simple. This whole mess is coming to an end . . . wait and see what will happen after the Fifa elections.
“We know people have accused us of being lame duck while letting Dube and Mashingaidze run the show, but this is like a game of chess, every move is calculated.
“This circus is coming to an end, I repeat,” said another member of the anti-Dube movement. With Fifa president Sepp Blatter desperate to curry favour with African football federations ahead of the May 29 elections, the Swiss boss is likely to turn a blind eye on any unorthodox move by Dube, the group reckons.
Meanwhile, the breakdown in Dube’s relationship with Phiri has left the Zifa boss with Fungai Chihuri and John Phiri as the only board members solidly in his corner. Tawengwa Hara is viewed as unsettled amid speculation that Mashingaidze has “some damning evidence against him”.
“It’s not that Hara supports Dube, the guy’s hands are tied because of something he did in the past. There is evidence to prove it which is in the hands of Mashingaidze and because of that piece of evidence Hara cannot be his own man,” a source plugged in at 53 Livingstone Avenue revealed last night. An audio recording of Hara, a Bulawayo-based lawyer, allegedly demanding a US$1 500 bribe to throw away an appeal launched by a former Premiership club is said to be in Mashingaidze’s hands.
Hara, who shocked his fellow board members by pushing for the cancellation of an emergency board meeting that was expected to see Mashingaidze being fired last month citing a breach of the constitution, vehemently denies the allegations.
“I am a lawyer and all I did was to question whether that meeting was constitutional. You cannot expect me to turn a blind eye on things because I am in football.
“On the allegations of being arm-twisted, that is rubbish. I have been in football for the past 20 years, have led two teams in the Premier Soccer League and there is no way that someone can arm-twist me,” said Hara.
