By Innocent Kurira
The Zimbabwe Soccer Coaches Association (Zisca) is at loggerheads with the Bulawayo province executive after the former demanded that the provincial body disbands and holds fresh elections.
The Bulawayo provincial executive, led by former Highlanders’ coach Bongani Mafu and also includes Philani Mabhena (vice-chairman), Morris Mukwiti (secretary), Kudzayi Mhandire (treasurer) as well as committee members Khona Tshabangu and Joseph Nkomazana, were elected in December last year.
The national association says it wants all executives to be in the interim while it works on adopting a new constitution.
However, the Bulawayo provincial executive argues that it’s in office legally and has no plans to disband just to fulfil wishes of the national executive.
Mafu said it was actually the national executive that should hold national elections because Bulawayo held its own last year.
“They have asked us to disband and start the voting process all over again from area zones, district then province. It’s a daunting task. It took us almost two years to do it properly, but we did it. It is now them that need to have elections, not us. We as an association would like to see a continuation of the re-building exercise that we have begun,” said Mafu.
One Bulawayo-based coach said it was shocking that the national executive is applying pressure on the provincial executive to revert to an interim body yet they went through all proper procedures to hold elections.
“Their (Bulawayo executive) election was overseen by a team sent by the national executive consisting of Oscar Mazhambe (national secretary), Gibson Homela and national public relations officer Godfrey Paradza,” said one Bulawayo-based coach.
“It’s the national executive which must have elections. These guys have been in office since 2009.”
Paradza said it was surprising that Bulawayo coaches are refusing to comply with their directive.
“To us this is a surprise because we thought we were working together as football people and coaches’ leaders. I am sure you are aware that the association has been dormant for quite a while now, but being friends and football people, we decided to come together and revive the coaches’ association.
We came together and decided to restructure to revive the association. We spoke to the guys in Bulawayo and to be honest these guys were the pilot project to the revival of the association,” said Paradza.
“We started having problems with Bulawayo province when it came to adoption of a new constitution.
I am sure you are aware that once you adopt the constitution, everyone from district to the national executive becomes an interim member or leader; this is where Bulawayo province is saying it disagrees with the national association. We do not know why they are doing this. Maybe the provinces want to go it alone,” he said. The Chronicle
