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Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter
ZIFA last week filed an executive committee resolution empowering the association to apply for condonation in its ongoing battle with vice-president Gift Banda.

It has since emerged that the filed resolution was infact the Phillip Chiyangwa era resolution of 2017 when the board resolved to apply for condonation in its case with the Sheriff of the High Court in attachment of Zifa property.

The embarrassing gaffe forced Zifa to make a hasty withdrawal of the application.

“We refer to the above, we advise that we erroneously attached the wrong Annexure A to the application for condonation. We accordingly withdraw the application filed on the 8th instant as per the notice of withdrawal hereto attached. Be pleased to take notice that the applicant withdraws this matter and tender the wasted costs. We apologise for the inconvenience caused,” reads the Zifa withdrawal notice from its lawyers Ngarava, Moyo and Chikono.

The association then attached another executive committee resolution, but Banda’s legal team is dismissing it as a legal nullity because its client did not attend that executive committee meeting.

“They initially filed an application for condonation and we told them the objections, especially that the resolutions which they had attached were from the Chiyangwa era authorising Mamutse to represent Zifa in a Sheriff matter. So Chemunyoro Gumiro (Zifa lawyer) tried to argue otherwise until I read it out to him.

“He then said he did not think the matter will continue. They withdrew and replaced that with another resolution dated June 6, which resolution did not emanate from the full Zifa executive committee because our client (Banda) was supposed to be notified also. Remember once Banda was reinstated, it meant that anything that Zifa would deliberate on, he ought to have been part of whatever resolution, but on the 6th of June he was not there. It’s Mamutse who had simply crafted something, a fraudulent resolution.

“These guys are not about football administration, they are just bent on trying to block an elected official from getting into office by any means necessary,” said Banda’s lawyer Munyaradzi Nzarayapenga of Dube-Banda, Nzarayapenga and Partners.

Nzarayapenga said they will seek postponement of today’s condonation application hearing by Zifa because they were not given adequate notice and neither were they consulted on the set date.

“Because we were not given adequate notice and were not consulted on the set date, we will obviously seek a postponement of the matter to a later date. We also want to know how Zifa paid the appeal fee because their receipt does not show how they paid that money. It’s not showing whether it was a cash payment or bank transfer,” said Nzarayapenga.