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Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter

The Government has said that the dissolution of Zifa during an extra ordinary general meeting which was held on June 4 was not done according to the dictates of the law and as such, the Sport and Recreation Commission has not deregistered Zifa, rendering the formation of National Football Association of Zimbabwe on the same day illegal.

Speaking at a press conference held at a Bulawayo hotel this morning, the Minister of Sport and Recreation Makhosini Hlongwane said the process to properly dissolve Zifa has since started and the government as well as Fifa was fully behind that.

“Zifa still exists yes, it’s a simple analysis to understand that Zifa still exists, the first thing is that Zifa has not been deregistered by the SRC and the second thing is that Zifa has applied to court, voluntarily submitted itself to the high court to seek sequestration and liquidation and that process has not yet been finalised.

“It is clear that Zifa desires to dissolve itself and if it so desires to do so like any other association it should be done according to the law and as well as according to their own constitution and we are in agreement with Zifa that that has to be regularised.

“First and foremost the dissolution was not according to the Zifa constitution and we are in agreement with Zifa and it’s a matter that needs some hygiene, some laundry issues to be attended to and there is no difference between ourselves as government ,Zifa and Fifa in respect of that matter,” said Minister Hlongwane.

He said the Government was also very cognisant of the importance of Fifa who have made it very categorical and clear in their correspondence to both Zifa and SRC that Zifa statutes should be followed as well as the Zimbabwean laws in terms of the dissolution process and both parties were working very hard to make sure that there were compliant.

“Since the 4th of June there has been, in the media, a lot of conversation about the dissolution of ZIFA that Zifa took in their EGM on that day. Part of the conversation locates around the process, how that process was undertaken, whether or not it was according to Zifa constitution and therefore consequently compliant with the SRC Act. We have consistently engaged Zifa during this entire period holding several meetings together with a view of ironing out issues.

“We have also kept Fifa abreast. Last week on the 20th of June we had a meeting with the ZIFA president and his executive (finance) to again further press home that there was need for Zifa to be dissolved properly according to its own statutes as advised by two Fifa letters that have insisted as well that Zifa should be dissolved according to its own statutes,” said Minister Hlongwane.

“I am glad to report that we are in agreement with Zifa that there is need to regularise the position of dissolution and I am happy also to make the announcement that zifa have started to take infact concrete steps to regularise that position. I know that in the month of july there are going to be meeting to discuss the whole matter of dissolution, so that matter was discussed and concrete steps have been taken by zifa to regularise matters around dissolution.

“The second point is that we also agreed that all competitions, international, regional and so on, and these include the participation by Zimbabwe Mighty Warriors in the Olympic games, our qualification to Afcon which is a Caf competition as well as the same competition for women football, we agreed that registration should be done by Zifa and it is my hope that Zifa have proceeded to do so as agreed,” said Minister Hlongwane.