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Harare Bureau
THE Zimbabwe National Soccer Supporters Association have called for the resignation of Zifa board president Cuthbert Dube with immediate effect. The supporters’ body, led by former Young Warriors’ team manager Eddie Chivero, want Dube to quit administration of the game on moral grounds.

They have drawn up a petition to be sent to the Sports Commission questioning the legality of the Zifa elections underway countrywide which they claim have already been heavily compromised.

Dube has been in the eye of a storm following his sacking from the Premier Service Medical Aid Society last week amid a host of allegations centred around violations of the pillars of corporate governance.

ZNSSA president Chivero addressed a media conference in Harare yesterday where he called on the Zifa president, and members of his entire board, to relinquish their posts and to abandon plans to contest in the next elections scheduled for March.

“According to the Fifa statutes there is no vote of no confidence any more in football. So we cannot pass a vote of no confidence,” said Chivero.

“All we are trying to do is to force Dube, if he has got any shame left in him, to step down through a petition which we are going to present to the Sports Commission who are mandated to supervise all sporting activities in the country.

“Elections are about to commence and we are saying if this man has been given a vote-of-no-confidence in most of these boards why should we keep him in football?

“It is the supporters’ wish that Mr Dube respect us and step down from the Zifa board. If this has been happening in other organisations that he had been leading what makes Zifa exceptional?

“Why would he be sincere with Zifa? We do not know the salary structures at Zifa, which we are also demanding as supporters to know.
“It’s a public office we need to know what our CEO is getting since he (Dube) has already set a trend whereby CEOs are paid high sums of money, maybe for the sake of allegiance. We would want to know what Mr Jonathan Mashingaidze is getting as CEO at Zifa.”

“We would also want to see a probe as soon as possible to find out where the money that was donated to the Warriors and the Mighty Warriors came from.

“If money was being siphoned from a public organisation like PSMAS and, maybe, coming to Zifa in the form of donations, we feel it’s very unfair.

“Zifa is a brand on its own which should be generating money.  I think we all remember when Mr Dube came into office some time ago he had a manifesto that one would want to chew after reading it because of the sweetness contained therein.

“But after he came into office he did exactly the opposite of what was written in his manifesto.”
The supporters also stressed that the Sports Commission should move to ascertain the legality of the elections for Zifa structures taking place countrywide.

They alleged the football governing body was not clear which constitution was being used for the process.  The ZNSSA leadership also raised the issue of the election fees which they said were prohibitive.

Chivero said the supporters want the Sports Commission to take measures, within the next 48 hours, and have threatened protests and legal action if no action was taken.

“You are all aware the SRC have said elections should not go ahead with the fees that were pegged that could only be afforded by people who were earning as much as $250,000 per month.

“Unfortunately, the elections have since started with those figures and the SRC is quiet about it. We are demanding an explanation from the SRC why these elections are going ahead when they had said fees should be pegged at the rates used in 2010.

“We also feel that the constitution that is being used for these elections was not registered by SRC. We are also demanding that the SRC should furnish us with a document of the constitution,” said Chivero.

However, Zifa Communications manager Xolisani Gwesela said the elections were being held above board.  Gwesela showed our Harare Bureau the letter from the SRC approving the amended constitution, which is being used in the elections.

“The constitution has been registered with the SRC and we are in possession of a letter from the director-general Charles Nhemachena dated January 8, 2014.

“I can also confirm that the association’s accounts have been audited but they first have to be analysed by the finance committee, the board and the assembly.

“They will be made public as soon as they are approved by the assembly,” said Gwesela.