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Phillip Chiyangwa

Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
ZIFA have until Monday to respond to the charges of violating the Sports and Recreation Commission Act since 2016.

The violations centre on non-compliance which is a serious and punishable breach of the act.

Ordinarily, SRC could have deregistered Zifa but the supreme sports body were lenient to ask them to explain why they failed to comply.

In the seven days given to the football motherbody which lapse on Monday, individuals at Zifa, particularly its president Phillip Chiyangwa and secretary general Joseph Mamutse should either respond through writing or present themselves before the SRC which gives them a chance to be heard.

In any disciplinary process, the accused should be given a chance to plead in terms of corporate governance, something that Zifa doesn’t adhere to.
The violations raised by the SRC could just be a tip of the iceberg.

The football motherbody violated its own constitution a record 25 times according to a letter written to the SRC by Vincent Pamire, a former Zifa president.

Part of Zifa’s violations include changing the head office from 53 Livingstone Avenue to Number 160 Enterprise Road, Highlands in Harare. The constitution is explicit that the headquarters of Zifa is 53 Livingstone Avenue, which was in existence since 1980.

A congress should have  been called to amend the constitution indicating that the headquarters had moved to a new place.

After the elective extra ordinary general meeting on December 5, 2015, Zifa were supposed to hold proper AGM at the beginning of 2016 to transact business of the year.

They only met on June 4, 2016 to dissolve Zifa to run away from statutory obligations hoping to establish NAFAZ. That project suffered a stillbirth.
From June to December 2016 they failed to convene an AGM as they were battling to clear the NAFAZ mess.

SRC centred on issues to do with statutory requirements such as annual budgets which are supposed to be presented at the beginning of each year.
Zifa only availed the 2016 accounts in February this year but failed to present the 2017 accounts to the SRC.

The SRC convenes four meetings a year and invites all registered sporting boards for the purpose of communicating the expectations of the supreme sports governing body and Government’s expectations in terms of statutory returns.

In those quarterly meetings, the SRC keep reminding associations to be compliant.

The SRC exhibited their firm hand when they went for rugby and handball, suspending their officials for non-compliance.

There have been cries that the previous Minister of Sports Recreation, Arts and Culture Makhosini Hlongwane had a soft spot for the Zifa executive who were not taken to task for failing to attend the SRC’s quarterly meetings.

For any association to get funding from the Government, they have to be compliant. So, the SRC is just but cracking the whip on Zifa who have failed to attend to policy and statutory returns at the quarterly meetings.

Last year, Zifa sent Transfer Marketing Systems manager Timothy Mazhindu for the SRC meeting instead of the chairman and secretary general.
ZIFA are supposed to conduct elections only after congress has passed an activity report for the year as well as plan of action.

Zifa affiliates’ programmes start in March, meaning that the football motherbody should conduct their election business before the resumption of its affiliates’ business. — @ZililoR