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Ndumiso Gumede

Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
SUSPENDED Highlanders chief executive officer Ndumiso Gumede is back at work after successfully contesting his dismissal by the club at the Labour court.

Zifa president Philip Chiyangwa last week suspended Gumede together with club chairman Peter Dube, who he said had violated sections of the national association’s constitution through alleged acts of misconduct.

Gumede, who is paying the price for questioning the legitimacy of the stillborn National Football Association of Zimbabwe (Nafaz), took his employers, Highlanders to court for unfair dismissal.

In his letter addressed to the Labour court, Gumede said:

“I was employed by Highlanders Football Club as a Chief Executive Officer until 18 November 2016 when I was dismissed verbally and unilaterally by Highlanders Football Club without following due process.

“They alleged that they were complying with a Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) directive contained in a letter dated 13 November 2016 addressed to me and copied to them.”

Highlanders, who were represented by Davies Ndumiso Sibanda who is also a member of the club’s board of directors, did not object to Gumede’s argument saying they were acting on Zifa instruction.

Bosso signed a certificate of settlement which compels them to take Gumede back.

“The responded agrees that the claimant was unprocedurally dismissed therefore respondent agrees to reinstate without loss of salary and benefits,” reads the resolution signed by Sibanda, Gumede and a labour officer only identified as CA Muchunga.

Highlanders said they are not prepared to go against the court ruling.

“Gumede is back at Highlanders in compliance with the laws of the land which Zifa also subscribes to and we’re not prepared to break them. If Zifa is aggrieved they know what to do,” said Sibanda.

He said Gumede raised pertinent legal issues which they could not challenge.

“He (Gumede) was right in his submissions that he is employed by Highlanders and at law we can’t discipline Gumede on Zifa’s instruction unilaterally without following due process. What Zifa should have done is to write to the PSL highlighting the wrong done by Gumede who works for their associate. In turn, the PSL will write to us stating the allegations that our employee is facing and then we were going to set up a disciplinary hearing where he was to defend himself. That’s how due process is done,” said Sibanda.

He said they were forced to illegally suspend Gumede after threats were made against the club.

“We had to release Gumede because threats which threatened the survival of this big institution called Highlanders were being made. We really didn’t want to be seen responding to an illegality with an illegal act that is why we released Gumede. We complied with Zifa’s order even though we knew that due process wasn’t followed and we did so because we didn’t want our hands dirty in events like these,” said Sibanda.

He said there was a need to separate Gumede, the Highlanders employee and Gumede, an honorary Zifa member.
Sibanda prayed that Zifa doesn’t force them to engage in further illegal acts.

“Obviously we will stand guided by Zifa on the next step but we pray that they don’t order us to engage in illegality. We also pray that the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) won’t stand and watch these illegalities. We hope the SRC will stand up and say that the Zifa constitution bows to the laws of the country and the SRC Act,” he said. — @ZililoR