Cuthbert Dube ready to act

By Farayi Machamire

HARARE – Zifa president Cuthbert Dube said he is ready to crack the whip on board members who are cheating the nation by fighting personal agendas rather than serving the game in the country.

Dube’s remarks came as Zifa was yesterday exposed as a divided organisation whose board members take turns to take a dig at one another with none of them concerned with coming up with strategies to move the game of football forward.

Presenting his evidence on the state of football in the country to the portfolio committee chaired by Temba Mliswa, Dube said heads would roll at the embattled association.

“As a leader, you don’t want to lead an institution that is divided. As president of Zifa, I am going to make sure that this board does walk the talk. Because at board meetings, I often ask this question ‘are we united?’ And from the vice president all the way down all say ‘yes’,” he said.

“Some even say 150 percent. But going forward, I am going to crack the whip and make sure that people don’t cheat the nation, that the board is not being cheated, that the president of Zifa is not being cheated.

“I have a mandate of 76 percent that voted me into office. We want football first. Those that don’t want to toe the line of football should not be part of football. It’s simple!”

The association’s board member for finance, Bernard Gwarada, had earlier opened a can of worms after alleging that he did not know how finances were run at the troubled association despite being the board member in charge of finance.

“We have a shortcoming in the corporate governance issues at Zifa,” he said.

“At the moment, finance issues are being handled by the secretariat. As board member finance, I have no sight of the Zifa accounts. I don’t know the Zifa bank accounts and the Zifa balance sheet.”

He was, however, asked by Mliswa why he had remained in office and not resigned if he was being frustrated from carrying out his duty.

“I have engaged the president on several occasions over the issue. At one time he called a meeting with Jonathan Mashingaidze but to my surprise Mashingaidze did not take heed,” Gwarada said.

Zifa women football boss, Miriam Sibanda also fuelled the debate saying her administration had not been able to attract sponsorship due to the sins of her predecessors.

“I think in our very first meeting, we engaged Marange and they told us in no uncertain terms that they were not happy with how their funds were handled by the previous executive (headed by Mavis Gumbo),” she said.

Sibanda also said lack of good governance issues bedevilling the association were a hurdle in securing financial support.

“Hatikwanise kunokumbira mari isu tichiziva kuti homwe dzedu dzakabooka (We can’t go ask for money when we know that we are broke.”

Corporates want to be sure that our governance system is in place.”

Sibanda said her administration was still running without a constitution a year after her election into office. Daily News