Zifa starts constitutional review process Stanley Chapeta

Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
THE Zifa constitutional review committee has asked football stakeholders to submit in writing their contributions to be considered in the process through the association’s regional offices.

The constitutional review committee vice-chairperson Stanley Chapeta said because of Covid-19 restrictions, which prohibits gatherings of more than 50 people, they had decided to invite people to make contributions in writing.

The committee is led by Harare lawyer Kelvin Musimwa and also consists of Zifa Northern Region chairman Martin Kweza, Highlanders chairman Kenneth Mhlophe, Simon Simango, Beaulla Musara, Simba Wisdom, Gilbert Saika and Zifa Southern Region board member Mehluli Thebe.

Zifa last amended its constitution in 2013 and has since notified Fifa of the establishment of the constitutional review committee.

Chapeta said they want to create a user-friendly Zifa constitution.

“The constitution review committee has started work on reviewing the constitution and we will go to all regions to get views of football stakeholders to make this document user-friendly. However, because of the current lockdown, attendance of meetings in Harare, Bulawayo, Midlands province and Mutare will be restricted due to Covid-19 requirements.

“We have put a system in place where information can be passed to us by submitting in writing through regional offices or direct to Zifa or submitting to your committee members, who will attend the outreach meetings. Zifa will give more details on the outreach programme,” said Chapeta.

Zifa’s move to review its constitution could be welcome news for the Sports and Recreation Commission, which has struggled in the past with different sets of statutes for registration from the association.

The Zifa Assembly, which acts as local football’s parliament, has previously been accused of turning a blind eye on occasions the association’s constitution has either been flouted or misinterpreted.

There is hope that the stakeholders will address all grey areas, including powers of the association’s judicial bodies, composition of affiliates, questions of who constitutes a Zifa member as wells the type of disciplinary action to be meted out to members.

One urgent matter that needs to be addressed is amendment of Article 10 of the constitution to make the Premier Soccer League a full member of Zifa.

The current Zifa constitution recognises 23 members, which include PSL clubs in their individual capacities.

In 2016, the Zifa assembly resolved to amend Article 21 of the constitution that allowed the Premier Soccer League to increase the number of teams from 16 to 18 teams. Four yers down the line, no amendment was done despite the PSL actually increasing the number of teams to 18.

This has resulted in arguments in some quarters that two PSL representatives illegally participated in the 2018 Zifa elections that ushered in Felton Kamambo as president since the current constitution only recognises 16 teams from the elite league. — @ZililoR

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