The Sunday News
ZIMBABWE Football Association president Cuthbert Dube was yesterday suspended from football following a meeting of the association’s councillors in Harare.
The extraordinary general meeting of the Zifa Assembly was held despite protestations from the Zifa secretariat which felt it was unconstitutional.
Board members Tavengwa Hara and Fungai Chihuri were also given the boot after being accused of fomenting divisions within the board and being “closely involved in the mismanagement” at Zifa.
The 30 Zifa councillors, out of a total of 58, tasked the association’s vice-president Omega Sibanda to lead the association on an interim basis.
Zifa Assembly members voted to relieve Dube of his duties largely accusing him of failing to rein in chief executive officer Jonathan Mashingaidze whom they felt had compromised the association through mismanagement.
Zifa Eastern Region chairman Piraishe Mabhena, who was tasked with commenting on yesterday’s developments, said 30 councillors who were in attendance at yesterday’s milestone meeting were confident that they acted within the confines of Zifa’s constitution despite earlier assertions by Mashingaidze that the meeting would be deemed illegal.
Mabhena said councillors were dismayed by the direction the country’s football was taking and felt Dube had failed to rein in Mashingaidze.
“After deep introspection and analysis of the challenges facing the association, Assembly members felt it was in the interest of the game that Dube should be relieved of his duties as he worked closely with Mashingaidze in hiding the association’s finances, which councillors have not been privy to since coming into office last year.
“The board member responsible for finance, Bernard Gwarada, has been kept in the dark about finances and all we have seen are lawsuits and court orders that have compromised the standing of the association. The finances were being kept a secret because as councillors we were not given access to the Zifa financial records something we feel has compromised our ability to dispatch our duties,” said Mabhena, adding that section 22 of the Zifa constitution empowered them to revoke the mandate of any board member hence their decision would stand.
There are 58 Zifa Assembly members and according to the constitution a 50 percent plus one vote leads to the expulsion of any board member.
Zifa has been under siege from creditors with some heading to the High Court in recent months.
Mabhena said Sibanda would be the acting Zifa boss and the board would deal with Mashingaidze as he was their employee.
“The suspension is binding and cannot be revoked and does not need the ratification of other members because with 30 members we make the 50 percent plus one, the threshold needed to effect a suspension.
“We felt the president failed to censure the CEO despite the fact that it was clear there was financial mismanagement and efforts were being made to hide transactions from us,” said Mabhena.
Dube was elected for a second term last year in March having assumed the Zifa presidency in 2010.
While there was uncertainty over the holding of the meeting after Mashingaidze wrote to councillors advising them the AGM was illegal and they should wait for the 27 June EGM, councillors were bolstered by Fifa officials who were in the country this week who advised that the assembly had a right to meet, as long as it formed a quorum, and that the Zifa constitution, which empowers a third of the Assembly members to call for such an extraordinary indaba, backed the idea.
Efforts to get a comment from Dube and Chihuri were fruitless as their mobile phones went unanswered while Hara declined comment on the matter.
