The Sunday Mail
“I have, with immediate effect, reinstated Pasuwa to his job as Warriors coach,” Chiyangwa told The Sunday Mail.
ZIFA president Phillip Chiyangwa has ordered the immediate reinstatement of deposed Warriors coach Kallisto Pasuwa.
Pasuwa was ejected from the Warriors coaching post together with his entire technical team after an alleged altercation with Zifa acting president Omega Sibanda over, among other things, the appointment of Wellington Mpandare to the post of Warriors team manager.
An outcry then erupted with Government learning with “shock the news of the firing of one of Zimbabwe’s most successful and illustrious technical team.”
Under immense pressure from stakeholders, Chiyangwa is believed to have then telephoned Sibanda from South Africa yesterday, where he is attending a Cosafa AGM, and advised him of his decision.
Contacted for comment, Chiyangwa refused to go into details over the events that led to Zifa’s ill-advised decision.
Instead he simply urged stakeholders to look into the future.
“I have, with immediate effect, reinstated Pasuwa to his job as Warriors coach,” Chiyangwa told The Sunday Mail.
“I was on the phone with my deputy a few minutes ago and I impressed on him the need for us to reverse his earlier decision and I can now tell you that Pasuwa is the Warriors boss. He is the big man as we speak.
“There is no need for you to pressure me about what happened in the past, the most important thing is that we have a very important tournament to prepare for and we are saying let us give the team all the necessary support.
“I will be back in Zimbabwe tomorrow (today) to iron out all loose ends related to that issue but as we speak I have tasked (board member) Edzai (Kasinauyo) to engage the coach and have him back in the job without any further delay,” said Chiyangwa who also announced he had ended his sabbatical.
Zifa were, by the time of going to print, yet to communicate their decision to Pasuwa and his manager Gibson Mahachi.
Mahachi said he will only be in a position to give a comment after getting official communication from the football governing board.
“I am getting this (reinstatement) from you. Nothing has been communicated to us as yet,” said Mahachi.
“I will only be in a position to comment after getting official communication from them (Zifa),” he said.
But with the overwhelming support he received from the public, Pasuwa will find it difficult to turn down the mid-air somersaulting Zifa.
The four time league winning coach on Thursday, before he was unceremoniously jettisoned, spoke of his desire to win the African Nations Championship and ordinarily should grab the opportunity to rekindle that dream that appeared extinguished by Sibanda’s shocking move.
“It is always nice to win in everything that one does,” said Pasuwa.
“Personally I want to go there and reach the final, something which we have never achieved. It will be good if we can go all the way and win it.
“From what I have seen in the squad that we have, reaching the final is not a very farfetched dream because there is no marked difference from the one we took to South Africa last time.
“One aspect that needs to be noted though is that last time we put in a lot of hard work in it with coach Ian (Gorowa),” said Pasuwa who was the first assistant to Gorowa when the Warriors came fourth at Chan 2014.
The dismissal of Pasuwa had thrown the football fraternity into turmoil with a number of former Warriors players wading into the saga condemning Zifa’s outrageous decision.
