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Ricky Zililo and Lovemore Dube
CUTHBERT Dube has failed to deliver on most of the promises he made before being elected as the Zifa president in 2010. The Harare businessman, who is in the second year of his second term in office presented a colourful manifesto which had lots of promise while campaigning for the Zifa seat. But he has failed to deliver.

In his manifesto, Dube promised to acquit himself to the best of his abilities assuring the nation that Zimbabwean football will have a “new face” as he was going to devote his energies “towards implementation of a turnaround strategy of the association” together with his board.

He said he was going to set up a team which was going to “mobilise sponsorship for the association’s portfolios. The sponsorship will seek to service development, general administration, marketing, national teams, infrastructure development and regeneration of the association.”

Up to date, Dube and his board have struggled to attract sponsors with the association’s debt ballooning to over $7 million.

The Zifa boss, in his manifesto, went on to say “my board shall bid to host Caf and Fifa competitions in our bid to rebrand and profile the association in particular and Zimbabwe in general. We shall work with various service providers in rehabilitating our facilities ahead of such big events.”

Last year Zimbabwe were involved in a failed bid for the 2017 Afcon finals after it transpired that the requirement was that a country should have hosted one major age-group tournament.

They failed to come up with a meaningful bid with the Zifa chief executive officer Jonathan Mashingaidze accused of having gone on overdrive to prepare a bid without government’s approval and knowledge of some Zifa board members.

Dube pledged to market local football through a marketing plan which was to be unveiled.

He said Zifa would have an interactive website to market local products and services locally and internationally, but to date there is no product that they can market.

The commercial arm which he said they were going to establish was to administer their television rights which globally are the major revenue stream of sport. It was through his presentation and “brilliant” ideas that he managed to deceive councillors into electing him.

Previously he had been Zifa treasurer.

Another idea that suffered a stillbirth was to re-operationalise Zifa (Pvt) Ltd, turning it into an investment vehicle that would be responsible for Zifa’s movable and immovable assets and the investment drive. The company, he said, would be registered on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange so as to leverage its business units.

Dube had said his board would work on having self help units namely farms and other investments.

Lately they were talking of farming and mining but both are yet to take off.

Losing Zifa presidential candidate in 2010 and 2014 elections Leslie Gwindi took a swipe at Dube saying “he should just do the honourable and resign.”

He said the Zifa boss was clueless on how to save the institution.

“The writing has always been on the board for all to see. Last time I challenged people to take a look at what Dube has done and compare it with his promises and see what a failure he is. He promised to align and re-align finances but up to now there’s no strategic plan on how to get out of debts. Surely, the Deputy Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Tabetha Kanengoni-Malinga is right when she says resources chase management but Zifa is in dire need for good leadership who can attract the corporate world,” Gwindi said.

“Administration at Zifa is pathetic, confidence and trust from crucial stakeholders has hit rock bottom and presented with such, Dube should just do the honourable and resign. Look, the problems at Zifa are now an issue of national interest being debated in Parliament and it’s only fair that he accepts that he has failed and steps down.”

Former Zifa board-member Nigel Munyati who lost to Dube branded him “incompetent.”

“There was never a strategic plan during our tenure between 2010-14 and that’s why I decided to challenge him because I had seen that he wasn’t competent in his job. You talk about not attending matches and all this has been brought up because he is incompetent,” Munyati said.

Pressure is mounting on Dube to step down and there have also been similar calls on Minister of Sport, Andrew Langa.

The Zifa assembly annual general meeting is set for February 14.

A source at Zifa said calls for some elements of the board to step down may not feature amid allegations that a number of councillors have been making trips to Harare where they have received allowances from a Zifa board member.

The allowances have been between $500 and $3,000 depending on whether one is in women’s football, province or region. These are meant to pacify the councillors, a majority of whom have lost faith in this administration and are clamouring for change but are not sure of the numbers on their side.