Zifa debt not my problem: Chiyangwa

Phillip Chiyangwa, the president of the recently formed National Football Association of Zimbabwe (NAFAZ) says the plight of former ZIFA workers is not his problem because they contributed to the plundering of the ‘old’ association.

On Saturday Chiyangwa dissolved the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) and said the new association was the National Football Association of Zimbabwe (NAFAZ).

“The Zifa employees and all those who were owed by that organisation are no longer my problem. That is the liquidator’s baby,” Chiyangwa said.

“I do not want to talk about the Zifa employees, but what is surprising about this whole thing is that these people kept on going to work for an organisation that they knew was dead and had no capacity to pay them. They were part of the problem.

“They participated in mismanaging that organisation. They plundered that organisation because I fail to understand the interest of someone in working when they are not paid. To be honest, in my view, those workers are dangerous. How were they surviving for such a long time?”

“We left an organistaion that was insolvent. We did not create those debts. We did not want to be associated with those debts, and neither did we want to be bothered about anybody thinking we should have stuck with it.

“Those that left without paying the debts are the ones that should answer for those debts and there is a law for prosecuting those that plundered the association.”

“I went into office on December 5 and immediately took leave for South Africa since I had been diagnosed with thyroid infection and went to South Africa for further examination. During that time, I took time to reflect on the situation at Zifa and it became apparent to me that based on the financial situation, whatever needed to happen needed to happen pretty fast.”

“I had a look at the financials and discovered that they were misleading. They were not correct in the submissions. From 2010 everything had been inflated, amounts related to properties. The previous executive had misled everybody, including Fifa. They had presented to Fifa they owned properties, which were in the name of a private entity, which they had no share in,” he said.

“We had consultations among our members and we concurred that the situation was untenable and we had to shut shop. Having sought legal advice, we went to Fifa and they overwhelmingly accepted our proposal to dissolve and form another organisation.

“(We) went to congress on (last) Saturday to present the accounts and then find a way forward. That is what our notice was. It was then put to the councillors whether they wanted to continue with that situation. We went to a vote and the decision was to dissolve Zifa,” Chiyangwa said.

“I am the most successful administrator since Independence. My Mighty Warriors have qualified for Rio 2016 Olympics, the men are going to Afcon and they qualified with a match to spare.

“So, at the new organisation, we are just focusing on working for the good of football and we will not listen to negative sentiments about what we are doing. All the members are happy and Fifa is happy.”