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A hearty congratulation to the Warriors for booking a place at this year’s expanded Africa Cup of Nations to be held in Egypt in June.

Sunday’s 2-0 victory over Congo Brazzaville and subsequent qualification for Afcon brought much needed relief to a nation in mourning following the deaths of dozens of our compatriots due to Cyclone Idai.

In addition to the deaths and destruction to property and infrastructure caused by this tropical cyclone in the Eastern Highlands, hundreds more remain missing.

Heart-rending as this tragedy might be, it united citizens, with ordinary folks donating whatever they could to help alleviate the suffering visited upon Chimanimani, Chipinge and other surrounding areas in Manicaland Province.

The Warriors’ victory gave the nation something to cheer about, albeit with tears still streaming down our cheeks. 

It was like a crowning moment for the spirit of ubuntu that has been on display since this tragic event struck our country.

You have done remarkably well under very difficult circumstances and we are very proud of our Warriors.

Our best wishes are always with you and we are looking forward to seeing even more success when you take up your place at the tournament proper in Egypt in June.

Just as you played your part in comforting a mourning nation by qualifying for Afcon, we hope you will not open up our healing wounds with poor performances in the tournament like you did in Gabon in 2017.

Thorough preparations are of utmost importance and we implore Zifa to ensure our boys are armed for battle.

We don’t want any distractions like what happened in 2017 when squabbles rocked the Warriors’ camp even before departure for Gabon.

We want to give our boys a resounding send off and that can only happen if Zifa works flat out to ensure smooth preparations. 

Our Warriors need to play a number of friendly matches against strong opposition and that’s Zifa’s job to secure such ties.

The kit issue, bonuses and incentives must be sorted now and not on the eve of departure or embarrassingly at the tournament like in 2017.

Our boys have qualified to compete and we pray that Zifa will play its role so that they focus only on the game and making the nation proud.

It was embarrassing for players to be making boycott threats in the middle of the tournament due to Zifa’s broken promises and lies.

We would like to give the present Zifa leadership the benefit of doubt since they only came into office last December.

They’re only new in terms of being voted in, but they were in football when previous Zifa leadership bungled and we want to believe that they have learnt something if they are genuine.

However, the Umbro kit fiasco must have left most football fans unconvinced that a new culture had taken root at the national association.

Hopefully it was just an oversight on their part and repeats of such shameless episodes don’t play out in the run-up to and at the Afcon finals.

We want our boys to represent the country with pride because they feel appreciated and this can only happen if Zifa raises its game.

No more shambolic preparations this time around Zifa please.

Afcon is a scheduled tournament and the draw will be conducted soon. 

We say a big no to emergency preparations for such a scheduled tournament.

A clearly spelled out roadmap must be drawn up and followed through so that we don’t embarrass ourselves again on the continent.

The ball is in Zifa’s court.