It’s my time, says Gwindi
Leslie Gwindi

Leslie Gwindi

Eddie Chikamhi Harare Bureau
ZIFA presidential candidate Leslie Gwindi declared yesterday that his time has come to lead domestic football and promised to institute major reforms to restore integrity and confidence among the stakeholders as the first step to get the game back on its feet. He said football’s flirtation with rich people, in leadership positions, had failed this nation’s biggest game, singling out former Zifa president Cuthbert Dube as a failure, and calling for a change of direction.

Gwindi launched his manifesto ahead of the December 5 elections to replace the previous board that was booted out of office by the Zifa Assembly early last month. Unlike his rival Philip Chiyangwa who launched his manifesto amid pomp and fanfare, the charismatic former Dynamos secretary-general and Harare City chairman yesterday emerged as a lone ranger and addressed the media at a local hotel where he spelt out his vision for the domestic game which is currently in disarray.

Among his priorities, Gwindi will seek to re-establish the respect for the constitution, bring back sanity and accountability in the way the association manages its finances, good corporate governance, investment in grassroots, restoration of the authority of the Assembly and bringing back to life the structures that had collapsed under the previous administration.

“We need to carry out a very far reaching and deep institutional reform. We need to look at our constitution. We need to look at how best we can improve.

“Reforms are indispensable in our current situation. We need to underline that and reforms will make us a credible organisation with integrity because we’ll have a constitution, we’ll have norms of behaviour, we’ll have a defined roles situation where there’s clarity between who’s doing what and who’s accountable. And that’s what’s necessary,” said Gwindi.

“Therefore it’s very imperative that we carry out constitutional reforms that’ll touch on the electoral code. We should ask ourselves: do we have norms of behaviour that we expect from the candidates? “We also need to look at what’s now contentious at the courts of law, that’s, is the electoral committee properly composed?

“In fact, we need to look at the constitution as a whole. Do we have a dynamic recurrent constitution or we’ve an archaic constitution. “If you ask me which constitution is being used right now, I’m at a loss. The Zifa constitution is a confidential document, I don’t know how that came to be. You can’t find it anywhere. It’s ridiculous.”

Gwindi said the last six years have been disastrous for Zimbabwean football as the Warriors plunged to their worst rankings outside the top 100. This was also the period the same national team and two age-group sides faced bans in international competitions, including the 2018 World Cup qualifiers currently underway.

Zimbabwe were kicked out of the global tournament over a long-standing debt to former Warriors coach, Valinhos. The Brazilian was just one of the long list of creditors who are collectively owed around $7m by the association. Gwindi revealed yesterday that he has a debt extinguishing strategy, which include, the transparent engagement of creditors.

He said they have three financial options that will be presented to the assembly for verification with the issues to be dealt with in the short, medium and long term. According to him, the plan should be operational in the first three months. Gwindi also strongly feels the next Zifa board must come up with a robust strategic document which can still be referred to by football administrators in the years to come on the way Zimbabwe football should take.

He will dedicate his first six months in office to establishing a five-year plan which must be measurable and with time frames. Gwindi participated in the previous two elections in 2010 and 2014 and lost to Cuthbert Dube. He said he will not give up the fight for the sake of the supporters.

Confidence is high in his camp that their time has come for him to be voted into office. Gwindi challenged the Zifa councillors to “do what is right” when they convene for the election. He said it was apparent they have learnt from their mistakes at the previous two elections, hence the decision to revoke Dube’s mandate.

“The underlining theme of our manifesto is to do what is right. Do the right thing. We are inspired to quote this because it is also biblical and it is important. You must be driven by these divine forces to do what is right,” said Gwindi. “We know the next World Cup is now water under the bridge and it’s unfortunate, it’s sad and it’s a big indictment to our capabilities. That is why we must guard against absentee presidency and people who have no football history coming through.

“We never had a millionaire administrator who came and changed our football. We tried with Dube and it failed dismally and we mustn’t do that again. “We would be foolhardy to try and imagine it will happen. It has been tried and it didn’t happen. “Millionaires have gone and started their clubs and I think they should be encouraged to do that. That’s where they are most productive. They don’t have the administrative skills necessarily.

“This is not a contest of millionaires but that of sound football administration. We want football to win. We want to establish a strong football association.” Gwindi is fighting for the Zifa presidency with businessman Chiyangwa, former Warriors player James Takavada and former Zifa chairman Trevor Carelse-Juul.

Gwindi’s plan of action has eight deliverables which include:

  • 1. Establishment of integrity and credibility of the institution called Zifa through restoration of the sanctity of the constitution.
  • 2. Accountability.
  • 3. Adherence to the constitution.
  • 4. Good governance.
  • 5. Development of sustainable women’s league.
  • 6. Establish a clear provincial and regional structure that leads to a conveyor belt into the Premiership and national teams.
  • 7. Re-establish a robust relationship with primary and tertiary schools and establishment of provincial and regional academies.
  • 8. Involve local sponsorship in all provinces and regions.

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