The Sunday Mail
Ishemunyoro Chingwere
FORMER Zifa chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze says the need to recover over US$85 000 he is owed pushed him into fronting a bid to stop the association’s dissolution as well as the proposed formation of the National Football Association of Zimbabwe. In court papers filed at the High Court in Harare, his lawyer, Pauline Kadembo, said Mashingaidze derived his locus standi from being owed by Zifa.
“The applicants’ locus standi arise from the fact that they are owed large sums of arrear salaries by Zifa who is their employer or former employer and they were grossly affected by the sudden unlawful dissolution which left them with no employer and no legal remedy to recover their salaries, since Zifa is now a non-existent association,” wrote Mashingaidze.
“I am personally owed the sum of US$85 338,81 in arrear salaries as at end of April 2016, when I ceased to be an employee of Zifa. I also aver that on top of the non-compliance with the constitution the decision by the respondents to dissolve Zifa and form Nafaz was done in bad faith and is against the tenants of natural justice, public policy and labour laws.
“The dissolution of Zifa was designed to evade obligations to creditors and employees especially considering that the new association Nafaz excluded itself from any of Zifa’s liabilities and did not take over the Zifa employees, most of which are the applicants.”
Mashingaidze’s argument has done little to extinguish speculation that the former Zifa chief executive is trying to take advantage of the confusion at the national association to claw his way back into mainstream football administration barely two months after leaving his lofty post.
In an interview with The Sunday Mail Sport, Mashingaidze did not rule out a possible return but said he would only consider one in an environment where he was appreciated.
“I have clearly stated the reasons for my interest in this case but it’s also a fact that I am a servant of football and will always be ready to serve in any capacity. But one needs to work in an environment where they feel appreciated and I think that appreciation was no longer there when I left Zifa.
“While football can never be about personalities, there are some people like (Zifa vice-president) Omega (Sibanda) and (Southern region president Mussa) Mandaza whom I think I can never be able to work with again because of their never disguised disdain of me,” he said.
