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Tawengwa Hara

Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
ZIFA honorary member Cornelius Bwanya and ex-board member Tawengwa Hara have questioned the sincerity of the Southern Region’s proposed constitutional amendments to revamp the association’s composition and operations.

According to a document signed on Friday October 15 by regional representatives titled, “Proposed amendments to the constitution from the Southern Region”, the region wants 10 articles of the constitution amended, with the biggest being the reduction of PSL delegates to the Zifa congress from the present 16 to just four.

The Southern Region also wants the Zifa headquarters to be moved to 160 Enterprise Road, Harare, a property owned by Zifa president Philip Chiyangwa. Zifa’s offices at 53 Livingstone Avenue have been locked for unexplained reasons.

The Southern Region is also lobbying for the return of regional chairpersons to the Zifa board after their automatic seats were abolished by the 2013 constitution that reduced the size of the executive committee to eight.

Bwanya, who was part of the constitutional review committee that worked on the amendments of the constitution adopted in 2013 said: “I’m not happy that it seems every board that comes in wants to amend the constitution and I’m not sure about the sincerity of the whole exercise. One is taken aback to think that since there was a failed attempt to rebrand the national association (changing from Zifa to Nafaz) now they’re trying to legitimise that through these amendments.”

He said there was nothing wrong with amending the constitution, as long it is in the best interest of the sport and football stakeholders agree to it.

But he questioned why so much energy was being put towards changing a constitution Fifa approved in 2013.

“If we keep tinkering with the constitution which governs our football, we will not go anywhere. About 80 percent of the Zifa constitution was Fifa’s input. They have a standard document that member associations have to follow and it’s shocking that a region, which doesn’t have its own constitution, is pushing for amendments to push out members of an affiliate such as the PSL, which is semi-autonomous. Have they forgotten that the PSL constitution was verified by the Zifa assembly, which they’re part of,” said Bwanya.

Hara, who is the Chicken Inn FC secretary-general and whose club has junior teams affiliated to the Zifa Bulawayo Metropolitan Province, said they were not consulted about the proposed constitutional amendments.

“From my past experience as a Zifa councillor, before amendments are made, wide consultations have to be done. Surprisingly, as a person or club from the Southern Region, I’m shocked that the acting chairman (Francis Ntuta) signed a document on our behalf for things that don’t even benefit the 16 Division Two and eight Division Three teams which he presides over,” said Hara.

“Apart from that, I think the move is being driven by egoistic individuals, who are not thinking about the gains of the game, but looking at cementing their positions ahead of the 2018 elections. What I know is that by increasing PSL representation to 18, Fifa made those recommendations because PSL helps run sport in Zimbabwe. Their members (clubs) over and above affiliation fees, every week pay six percent levies directly to the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC), something not done by lower leagues. Zifa itself levies clubs six percent in every game and why then do you want to stifle an affiliate that is your cash cow and supports your day-to-day operations,” asked Hara.

He said unlike the First Division, PSL had never registered problems of walkovers as a result of clubs’ failure to pay affiliation fees.

Hara said Southern Region chairman Musa Mandaza should be proud of PSL teams, especially from his area, as they all have junior teams, dismissing the region’s claims that the topflight league is doing nothing for football development.

“Look, maybe Mandaza and crew don’t know what is happening in their region. All PSL Southern Region teams have juniors from age groups up to the First Division. Hwange and Highlanders have developmental sides in Division One, How Mine and Chicken Inn Division Two, while Tsholotsho FC and Bulawayo City also have junior teams.

“All PSL teams have constitutions and I wonder if they (Southern Region) are encouraging their teams to have constitutions when they fail to have one that governs the region. What is the hurry to selfishly want to derail the Zifa constitution when you don’t even know the number of teams in your region,” said Hara.

Zifa Southern Region board member Tumediso Mokoena Ndlovu said they are not fighting PSL, but are only highlighting anomalies within the constitution which they want corrected.

“Please, get us right. This is not a fight against PSL but it’s something we’re doing for generations to come. What we’re simply doing is to alert people or councillors about what is wrong which needs to be corrected. It’s all in the best interests of the game,” Ndlovu said.

Check Ndlovu’s full explanation about the proposed constitutional amendments in tomorrow’s Chronicle Sport.

@ZililoR