Zimpapers Logo

Miriam Sibanda

Sikhumbuzo Moyo Senior Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE women’s football boss Mirriam Sibanda has come out guns blazing accusing her fellow Zifa board members of taking a spectator’s view while chief executive officer, Jonathan Mashingaidze tears local football to tatters. In a strongly worded letter in which she also said Mashingaidze was toxic to football and belonged in the Stone Age era, Sibanda said her fellow board members, instead of taking action against the seemingly all too powerful Zifa head of secretariat, actually buried their heads in the proverbial sands.

“I’ve been silent for too long. I kept quiet and allowed the matter to pass when the Zifa chief executive officer, our employee, viciously attacked me in a board meeting last year. Then, he accused me of being ignorant about football matters, he further accused me of being out to get him. Remember none of you came to my rescue,” said Sibanda.

Early this week, the Zifa chief executive officer set himself on collision course with the government after describing the Deputy Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Tabetha Kanengoni-Malinga as an “ignorant” and “ill-informed” government official who was driving a “misguided” mission to try and remove the country’s embattled football leadership.

“Fellow board members how many times did you allow our all powerful General Secretary to cower you into silence when I tried to make you see that his attitude towards women’s football belonged in the Stone Age? That his threats of him holding dossiers that I wasn’t good for football were wrong? By your silence you allowed the Zifa chief executive officer to lie under oath in Parliament about disbursement of Fifa FAP funds, the welfare of Mighty Warriors while in camp,” wrote Sibanda, a trained journalist who took over women’s football leadership from Mavis Gumbo.

She said her attempts to bring to the fore the fact that it was wrong for the Mighty Warriors coach, Rosemary Mugadza to work without a contract fell on deaf ears.

“Your silence gave him the courage to ride rough shod over women’s football. That he was brazenly breaching Zifa statutes and interpreting the Constitution and Rules and Regulations to suit his agenda didn’t have you worried at all. Gentlemen, I’ve felt disempowered and discouraged by your prolonged silence. In private, some of you pretend to be worried by Mashingaidze’s unbecoming conduct but come board meetings, you switched positions and leave me alone in a corner at the mercy of the all-powerfull ‘Chief, Papa or Mr Mash’ but today, colleagues, I’ve decided to break my silence and speak,” wrote Sibanda.

She also came to the full defence of Deputy Minister Kanengoni-Malinga, saying she will not stand by while another woman was being trivialized in public.

“How do you reconcile the fact that our General Secretary describes the Deputy Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture as ‘misguided and misinformed’ on our behalf without our consent? And yet this is the very same government official we are hoping to lobby her colleagues in government to give Zifa the $3,2 million that you requested.  Fellow board members, now is the time to see Mashingaidze’s unbecoming conduct for what it is. It’s detrimental to the beautiful game. He has gone way out of line and must be shown the red card,” wrote the women football boss.

Yesterday Sibanda was unrelenting repeating that she had been quite for a long time and felt it was high time she spoke her mind.