The Sunday Mail
CECILIA GAMBE has once again talked her way into trouble.
The Zimbabwe Women’s Football board member (competitions) antagonized many by the brutal manner in which she addressed the elephant in the room.
Gambe used a reception hosted by Harare mayor Ben Manyenyeni at Town House last week to highlight the double standards this country has exhibited over the Mighty Warriors.
Gambe is no diplomat – she is raw, over talks and shoots from the hip.
It seems she showed all that when she addressed guests during that hastily arranged reception last Wednesday evening.
Unfortunately I wasn’t in the capital to attend that event as the need to touch base with family has seen me spend the past three weeks in Bulawayo.
And being home has brought me face to face with an inferiority complex that afflicts many from this part of the world.
Of all the sound football administrators we have no one has the ambition to become the Zifa president.
They all want to be the vice president and something lower.
That makes me sick but it’s a matter for another day.
Back to Gambe
No one can say the long serving administrator lied when she said Government, the corporate world and to some extent the media turned their backs on the Mighty Warriors during their long hours of need.
Maybe there was a better way of putting it across but Gambe was right on the money.
We are now stampeding to be associated with the Mighty Warriors because they are Rio bound but were nowhere in sight when they had tea for lunch, ate sadza with matemba on the eve of matches and were not paid their winning bonuses.
Apart from Prophet Walter Magaya none among us can say they have always had the Mighty Warriors’ backs.
We were all too busy to listen to their concerns and Gambe, who ran the errands and came back to the girls with empty begging bowls, has every right to be shocked when we start falling over each other in our bid to share in the team’s Olympic limelight.
As expected Xolisani Gwesela, the guy who is unfortunate to have the job of putting make up on the ugly frog that is Zifa, came out in full public relations amour.
“Zifa would like to profusely apologise for the unfortunate statements attributed to one member of the Zifa Congress.
The association would like to distance itself from the contents of the statements which we believe were her own opinion and not that of the association,” Gwesela said.
What happens to Gambe – who last week told Prophet Magaya that the Mighty Warriors qualification for the Olympics was powered by the PHD leader’s anointing oil – is open to speculation.
However, she must be commended for having the guts to say what most of us dread to say.
Before President Mugabe’s inspired substitution, which saw Makhosini Hlongwane coming in for Andrew Langa, Government seemed out of touch with developments at the Mighty Warriors.
It has since changed with the Hlongwane in tune with not only football but all the other sporting codes in the country.
The corporates too appeared to leave the day Mavis Gumbo lost those elections, so much about them having pledged to be the Mighty Warriors’ all weather friends.
However, after all has been said and done one has to remember that success has many parents.
The good thing about this Olympic euphoria is that the Mighty Warriors are back in the limelight.
Their bosses should now push for the girls to get some sort of recognition.
Skipper Felistus “Figo” Muzongondi told Manyenyeni that her troops would appreciate stands as a “token of appreciation” and that is something that is not beyond this nation.
These girls have to be honoured for being the first football team to qualify for the Olympics.
Inviting them to cocktails were they eat drumsticks and drink fruit juice before posing for photos is just not enough.
Va Shagare exits the scene!
VaShagare is the founder of DeMbare DotComs and can be contacted on that Facebook page as well as the email [email protected].
