Chiyangwa under pressure

By Grace Chingoma

PRESSURE is mounting on Harare businessman Philip Chiyangwa to withdraw his candidature in the race for the ZIFA presidency amid claims yesterday by a number of former football administrators that he was never involved in local football structures and does not have the required five years in administration of the game as required by the constitution.

Chiyangwa’s candidature for the December 5 elections was accepted after he convinced the ZIFA Electoral Committee that he was involved in football administration between 1993 and 1999, but former football administrators who were in office during the same period yesterday disowned him.

Former Northern Region secretary general, Chivero Stanley Mudhokwani, who was at the helm of the region from 1996 when the region still covered from Manicaland up to Kariba, said he never came across the Harare businessman as one of the administrators he worked with.

Back then there were only two regions in the country that is Southern Region, which covered such provinces as Matabeleland and Masvingo, and the Northern Region which covered all the other provinces such as Mashonaland West, Mashonaland Central and Harare.

Following the creation of the Eastern Region in 1998, Mudhokwani then moved from Northern Region to become secretary-general of the newly-created region.

“In 1990, I was Manicaland Province’s vice-chairman and then became the Northern Region secretary-general in 1996.

“When Eastern Region was created, I moved there in the same capacity as the secretary-general until 2001. “I never met Philip Chiyangwa and to make matters worse, the region stretched up to Kariba but I never met him. When I was the secretary-general of Northern Region, I used to meet all the administrators but I never had any meeting with him in that capacity.

“If he was a sponsor, well I wouldn’t know, but he doesn’t have any track record I know of because in the Northern Region, I was covering from Manicaland up to Kariba. When I moved to Eastern Region, it included Manicaland, Mashonaland East and Masvingo provinces.

“Southern Region remained big until a recent resolution to create the fourth region Central Region. In my position as the secretary-general of Northern Region, I never came across him (Chiyangwa) as an administrator anywhere,” said Mudhokwani.

Lifelong Footballers Trust of Zimbabwe, led by former ZIFA board member Francis Zimunya, also turned on the heat on Chiyangwa and yesterday presented their petition to the ZIFA Electoral Commission that his candidature is null and void as he was never involved in football administration.

In their petition, which they also copied to the Minister of Sport and Recreation, they said they were concerned “with the way football continues to be destroyed in Zimbabwe” by bringing in people with no sound background in the running of the game in this country.

“We as members of Lifelong Footballers Trust of Zimbabwe, an organisation that was established to address the challenges faced by the former footballers and to protect the legacy created by former footballers, are concerned about how football continues to be destroyed by several violations of ZIFA and FIFA statutes.

“We are perturbed to see gross violation of the ZIFA Constitution in particular by Phillip Chiyangwa who wants to be a member of the ZIFA board whilst he knows that he was never an executive member of Futsal, Mazoe Citrus and Chinhoyi Tigers Football Clubs.

“We challenge him to prove that he served as an administrator for a period of five years, as stipulated by the ZIFA constitution, at the organisation he purports to have served. “Francis Zimunya, was a former member of the ZIFA Northern Region executive committee from July 1993 to 1999 before becoming the chairman of ZIFA Northern Region, where he was re-elected in March 2003 denies any knowledge of Chiyangwa’s participation in football at any level in the said region.

“Former players, club and provincial administrators which includes Pascal Zata, who was the Mashonaland West treasurer for 15 years, also confirms of not having seen Chiyangwa at any of the ZIFA meetings.

“The same has been confirmed by Kufandarerwa and Robert Chisvo who were the chairman and the treasurer respectively of Mashonaland Central Province where Mazoe Citrus was situated.

“Former Provincial and club executives, who administered football at that time, are prepared to testify that he (Chiyangwa) never participated in football administration at the clubs he purports to have administered.”

Chiyangwa is vying for the ZIFA presidency with former Harare City chairman Leslie Gwindi, ex-Warriors defender James Takavada and businessman Trevor Carelse-Juul. Meanwhile, Chiyangwa’s camp was not happy with clearance of Carelse-Juul by the ZIFA Electoral Committee headed by Justice Selo Nare and have indicated they will appeal.

ZIFA chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze yesterday could neither confirm nor deny receiving the appeal by Chiyangwa’s election agent, Eddie Chivero, against Carelse-Juul’s candidature following his clearance by the ZIFA Electoral Committee last Friday.

Mashingaidze said once the appeal is received, it will be forwarded to the ZIFA Appeals Committee. “Once the appeal is noted it will be sent to the relevant Appeals Committee. So the appellant has to come up with heads of argument citing the issues he or she is appealing against.

The appellant must then pay the appeal fees of US$2 000,” said Mashingaidze. Carelse-Juul’s agent Stanley Makombe said they are not moved by latest development after successfully resubmitting their papers on Friday.

“It is their legal right to appeal but I think the ZIFA Electoral Committee had questioned certain documentation for Trevor and have since confirmed that all his papers are in order so any appeal against us suggesting that the Committee did not look at our papers correctly is wrong.

“My view it is a tactic to try and continue with their strategy of never wanting Trevor to participate in the elections because for them it is the best strategy. They seem to feel that if they go to elections with him they see their chances of winning slim.

“When you look at the Electoral Committee it is made up of legal minds and when you question experts in law when you are not a lawyer and just getting things from the top of your head, it is just merely to waste time.

“We are not moved by it and they are disappointed because I think they had planned and their plan was to make sure Trevor is not confirmed and now they are trying to find a way to complicate things,” said Makombe. The Herald