HARARE – Losing candidates in the just concluded Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) presidential election, Philemon Machana and Twine Phiri, have condemned the poll as “not free and fair”.
Machana and Phiri are alleging that controversial Zimbabwean tenderpreneur Wicknell Chivayo influenced the outcome by buying votes for the elected president Nqobile Magwizi.
Feeling aggrieved, Machana and Phiri have taken legal action, filing a complaint with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to seek nullification of the election which they say was ‘scandalous’.
Their concerns comes after Chivayo made a social media post just hours before the election, pledging to buy cars for Magwizi, all councillors, and newly elected board members if Magwizi won.
Additionally, he also promised to donate a staggering US$10 million to ZIFA should Magwizi win.
Magwizi went on to win resoundingly, securing 61 out of 71 votes.
This did not sit well with Machana and Phiri who are arguing that the election process was compromised.
“The election for president of ZIFA was not free and fair,” said Machana and Phiri through their lawyer Method Ndlovu.
“…(Councillors) did not exercise their right to vote freely; in other words, they did not vote according to their conscience.
“A third party, Wicknell Chivayo, who is a prominent businessman in Zimbabwe, issued a statement before the election that he preferred 1st respondent (Magwizi) to be elected president of 2nd respondent (ZIFA).
“The third party did not stop there. He further stated that he will gift 2nd respondent a sum of USD10 million (ten million United States Dollars) if 1st respondent was elected its president.
“This was a clear influence peddling by a third party, clearly meant to influence the voting delegates to prefer the 1st respondent ahead of each of the claimants.
“This because the third party promised that 2nd respondent, i.e. ZIFA will benefit a huge sum of money only if 1st respondent was elected president and that the voting delegates stood to personally benefit from him as they would be given brand new motor vehicles if they voted 1st respondent as president of ZIFA.”
Despite the controversy, Magwizi was officially elected the new substantive ZIFA president, with Kenny Ndebele as male vice president and Loveness Mukura as female vice president.
The elected board members include Kudzai Kadzombe, Alice Zeure, Tafadzwa Benza, Brighton ‘Panjap’ Ushendibaba and Thomas Marambanyika.
