Zifa ‘sack’ Mashingaidze

By Godknows Matarutse

Jonathan Mashingaidze’s reign as the Zifa CEO came to an abrupt end yesterday after the association’s board decided against renewing his contract.

Mashingaidze’s contract expired at the start of this month but he had continued in his role as Zifa had not made a decision.

However, Mashingaidze’s fate was decided during yesterday’s board meeting bringing to end his stay a 53 Livingstone Avenue.

“The Zifa executive committee refused to renew the contract of general secretary …Mashingaidze and opted to put him on retirement,” Zifa president Philip Chiyangwa said in a terse statement yesterday.

“Chief operations officer Joseph Mamutse has assumed the role of acting general secretary with immediate effect.”

Speculation is however, rife that Warriors’ forward Nyasha Mushekwi’s ex-wife Luminista has been earmarked to fill in the role left vacant by Mashingaidze.

Chiyangwa recently hired Luminista as an image consultant to help spruce up Zifa’s image and described her as a “genius”.

It was always going to be difficult for Mashingaidze to continue as the head of the Zifa secretariat having been in the spotlight for the wrong reasons in the past five years since his appointment during Cuthbert Dube’s reign.

A large number of Zifa councillors had long voiced their disapproval of Mashingaidze’s conduct and was perceived to be the main reason the association’s maladministration cancer.

The councillors accused Dube and Mashingaidze of turning Zifa into a two-man show as most major decisions were made without their knowledge.

In the end, the Zifa assembly in October last year finally pushed for Dube’s removal as they felt he was protecting Mashingaidze.

Former women’s football boss Miriam Sibanda and ex-Warriors coach Ian Gorowa all branded Mashingaidze a “serial liar” for the way he handled affairs at Zifa.

Mashingaidze had many running battles with the two during their involvement with the local game.

The former Harare High school teacher also presided over the Zifa secretariat at a time they made a number of blunders.

Mashingaidze and Dube failed to properly handle the labour dispute with former Warriors coach Valinhos resulting in Zimbabwe’s expulsion from the 2018 World Cup qualifiers.

Since 2010, Fifa had been writing numerous letters to Zifa demanding Valinhos’ outstanding payment but Mashingaidze and Dube treated it as a trivial matter.

The former Zifa CEO also failed to properly handle the labour dispute with former spokesperson Nicky Dhlamini which resulted in the association losing over $100 000 in damages.

Mashingaidze was also singled out by Prophetic Healing and Deliverance (PHD) ministries leader Walter Magaya for misappropriating funds meant to cater for the Warriors. Daily News