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Mgcini Nkolomi

Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
HIGHLANDERS board chairman Mgcini Nkolomi has taken a swipe at Zifa, accusing the national football governing body of “paralysing” Bosso by denying justice to suspended outgoing chairman Peter Dube.

Zifa president Phillip Chiyangwa plunged Highlanders and the Premier Soccer League into a leadership crisis when he unilaterally slapped Dube with an indefinite suspension in November 2016, as the relegation and promotion dispute between Zifa and the PSL took an ugly turn.

Chiyangwa alleged that Dube contravened Article 1.15 of Schedule 11 of the Zifa Rules and Regulations by unlawfully interrupting formal proceedings during the Zifa congress. He was also charged with inciting chaos by urging PSL club representatives to denounce lawfully made resolutions.

Dube’s term of office was abruptly ended by Zifa as he spent last year on the sidelines waiting for Zifa to call him for a hearing.

At last year’s Highlanders’ annual general meeting, members demanded that the board acts on Dube’s suspension, arguing that Zifa erred by banishing him from all football matters without any hearing.

The Bosso board then calmed members, saying “due process” was going to be taken.

On Sunday, Nkolomi expressed his disgust at Zifa for taking them for a ride and said the national association owes them an explanation.

“I’ll say this without fear. When you talk of Zimbabwean football, you talk of two great teams that spice up the football environment, Highlanders and Dynamos. These two teams are competing in a healthy way, but imagine if you paralyse one institution. I’ll mention the Dynamos red card; the Zifa chairman wakes up and rescinds the red card, what kind of nonsense is that,” said Nkolomi.

“The Peter Dube issue you can all tell it was miscarriage of justice. Never think the Dube issue is over, because as Highlanders FC, Zifa still owes us an explanation. Never mind that next we’ll be having a new chairman because what we’re dealing with is an issue of precedence. This issue wasn’t about Dube, it was about Highlanders FC. Dube was just but a leader of this institution, the man in charge of negotiating with sponsors, with all our benefactors. The executive team was weakened because of his suspension,” Nkolomi said.

He said they were shocked that Dube was not pardoned when Zifa lifted suspensions of people it had banned last year.

Nkolomi revealed that there were suggestions from certain quarters that Dube should apologise to Zifa, but out of principle he declined preferring to clear his name before a disciplinary hearing that never was.

“The Dube issue must solve Highlanders’ problems of injustice and marginalisation, whatever you can call it. I can tell you we wrote a strongly worded letter to Zifa three weeks ago because what happened was they were always giving us an impression that they were dealing with the matter. I came here and pleaded with you to allow due process to take its course on the Dube issue, but I can’t return a year later and say allow due process to take its course.

“However, my appeal to you is that this Dube issue is a test case for Zimbabwean football. Highlanders is a great institution, the oldest club in the country, we’re 92 years old, eight years shy of a century and everything we do must be calculated. We must be strategic and disciplined. I must say I’m not worried about the enemy outside; I’m a bit weakened by the enemy within. I can deal with an enemy outside, but it becomes a bit difficult to deal with a family member who knows everything,” Nkolomi said.

@ZililoR