insidesport:with MICHAEL KARIATI
THERE are still two years left before the Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) congress gathers to vote into office a new executive committee at the local football mother body, but despite the time left, jostling for posts has already started.
Names such as Alois Bunjira and Ellen Chiwenga are being thrown around as possible candidates to replace Felton Kamambo as Zifa president when it’s time.
From the outset, the interest in the elections and the debate it has generated appears to give the impression that some football followers are already considering the Kamambo leadership a failure.
What some are failing to understand is how those fans have come to the conclusion that Kamambo and company have failed barely 18 months into their term, with two more years to go.
The question is: Is one year and six months enough for one to raise a hand and really say Kamambo has failed? In what ways has he failed, some might want to ask?
What happens should Warriors qualify for both the Africa Cup of Nations Cup and the 2022 World Cup under the Kamambo-led Zifa board? What happens should Kamambo manage to clear the $7 million debt that has haunted Zimbabwean football for over a decade?
Bunjira, a former Zimbabwe Warrior himself, and Chiwenga — on the other hand — have not made it a secret and have come out in the open that they are in the running for the biggest job in Zimbabwean football.
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However, before they get excited, they should know that they have a battle on their hands, but not against other presidential hopefuls, but against an electorate that has been known for its penchant for bribery money.
Since Leo Mugabe came into office in 1993, Zifa has been picking candidates based on how much one can offer and also on the basis of the wishes of influential members of the Zifa Council.
Over these years, competent contenders, capable of injecting new life into the football governing body — Charlie Jones, Nigel Munyati, Trevor Carelse-Juul and James Takavada, for example — have been systematically sidelined and condemned to oblivion with money playing the central role.
In fact, since 1993 it is considered, that Zimbabwe’s football governing body has seen only one authentic Zifa presidential election. That was in 2006 when Wellington Nyatanga — a former Zimbabwe Saints official — took over the Zifa presidency, with no issues raised of money exchanging hands.
Although Cuthbert Dube denied that he paid to win the 2010 and 2014 elections, he did not deny that some Zifa councillors turned against him when he refused to pay them after pestering him with their never-ending “family problems”.
Dube’s predecessor Phillip Chiyangwa was also accused of vote-buying by his main rival Carelse-Juul.
Even Kamambo is aware of the influence of these same Zifa councillors and has kept them close to his chest by giving them allowance-paid trips with various national teams.
Misheck Chidzambwa, who won the 1985 East and Central Africa Challenge Cup as captain of the Warriors and later the 2002 Cosafa Cup as coach of the same team, was straight to the point.
“We might rush to say so and so has killed our football. The game has been destroyed at Zifa Council level. This syndrome of ‘give me money to vote for you, has gone too far. As football, we need to act on that,” he said.
Surely, the root of the problems in our football is not the actors in the Zifa board, but those who elected them to those positions in the first place. As long as those characters are still part of Zimbabwean football, it will be aluta continua.
What is disturbing is the fact that this vote-selling syndrome has been growing by each election. The long-serving councillors have been sowing this seed of “cash for my vote” system to all newcoming members.
The truth is that as long as the current Zifa Council set-up remains, the likes of Bunjira and Chiwenga would be wasting their time by taking part in the Zifa presidential polls.
They will surely be blown away by people with no knowledge of football nor a clue on how to run the game but are willing to pay the Zifa councillors for their votes.
In order to avoid a continuation of this vote-buying system, Zimbabwean football should get rid of the entire Zifa Council and start afresh.
The ringleaders of this syndicate are known and it is high time Zimbabwean football wiped out and bid farewell to these puppet masters who have soiled the game.
This clean sweep of the Zifa Council should start with the regions and in particular the northern region where corruption is said to be at its highest.
Football the world over is changing and Zimbabwean football cannot remain immune to change. It is time our football brought in a completely new crop of Zifa councillors — instead of those who have always sold their votes for cash: the puppet masters.
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