Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter
HIGHLANDERS’ board member and educationist Elkanah Dube has described as frivolous, malicious and nefarious reports that he was bribed by incumbent Zifa vice-president Omega Sibanda to stand down from the 2015 vice presidency elections.
Reacting to a message circulating on social media entitled, “Findings of political, corruption and maladministration activities in respect of Mr Omega Sibanda”, claiming that Sibanda paid Dube $5 000 to withdraw from the race, the former Hillside Teachers’ College principal said his withdrawal was purely because he lacked support from the Southern Region.
“The Southern Region councillors in their wisdom had made it abundantly clear to me that they had resolved in their entirety to back the candidature of Mr O Sibanda, a position which the chairman of the region Mr (Musa) Mandaza also made public through the press. As a matter of principle, it became illogical for me to proceed to garner support from other regions when I had been spurned by my own region where support was mandatory for me in order to buttress my campaign in other regions,” said Dube.
“Thus at no point in time did I have contacts or dealings with the other candidate. The fallacious allegation that Sibanda paid me $5 000 to withdraw from the race is not only malicious, but also nefarious. It is designed to tarnish my image and therefore strategically eliminate me from any Zifa electoral activities in future”.
He said the faceless author of the expose was a clear sign that he was being viewed as a potent threat “because of the massive relevant experience in administration issues I have amassed over the years”.
“This falsehood will, however, not in any way shake my resolve whenever required to stand up and assume responsibilities in fulfilment of the desires of sport loving Zimbabweans in general and those of the Southern Region in particular,” said Dube.
Sibanda last week told the media that he had opened a police case against the authors of the dossier, saying besides being defamatory, they wanted to discredit him ahead of the Zifa elections set for March 2018.