By Tendai Ndemera.
Harare, Zimbabwe. (News of The South)- The draw threw up wonderful pairing in Cairo on Friday. Yes, Egypt could be record winners of the African Cup of Nations but can be beaten in Cairo in the opener. DR Congo have won the cup before and I particularly like the 1974 side for their quality…..but now Zimbabwe can beat them with a little sweat if a flourish
And Uganda, their best claim to fame is President Yoweri Museveni, but Dennis Onyango knows Khama Billiat enough for his class. Zimbabwe have the best chance in heaven of progressing to the round of 16 this time around. Never before have we avoided West African opponents….now we have nil in our group. It could be a good omen…..but we still have the small matter of Mo Salah.
But for me that is not the story of the draw. It is about the network subscriber called ZIFA. Do they have enough connectivity to give uninterrupted coverage to the nation? Can the Felton Kamambo led executive do as required to prepare the Warriors for the competition of this magnitude, this not Cosafa Cup by any stretch?
We know Sunday Chidzambwa and his crew have no contracts. Yes, no one has a contract, even manager Wellington Mupandare. He has none. Yes, the same issue of coaches that saw Vice President Gift Banda suspended…..he was being charged for firing coaches. It is a wonder how Banda managed to fire coaches who did not have contracts…….and still do not have to date, even after public announcement to that effect.
So President Kamambo needs to start by sorting out the contracts issues with Chidzambwa and crew. The Warriors themselves will need proper Afcon contracts, to avoid a situation where they had to make noise to be paid.
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Competing at Afcon is a bridge too far for ZIFA to carry alone. It needs a lean effective panel of experts with diverse skills around resource mobilization, communication, logistics, travel, protocol and security. This joke called ZIFA CEO Joseph Mamutse can not be left to this when he can not write simple meeting minutes. The Banda hearing has stalled because of the issue of minutes.
AFCON is not a mere ZIFA AGM which they’re struggling to hold. Oh, by the way the AGM that was originally scheduled to take place last month and postponed to April 27, is not going to take place after all….again. The Page can reveal that ZIFA is struggling to put together key documents such as the financial report, audited accounts (Baker Tilly) are still to be prepared. Just imagine, this is an AGM that could have taken place on March 23, vangaisimudze Afcon vachidai ivava?
Even the Chairman’s Report which Sweeney Mushonga is busy trying to put together as President Kamambo’s Personal Assistant, is not ready, so the AGM will not take place on April 27. Just watch……
So, an association that struggles to prepare and hold a simple AGM can not be trusted with preparing a premier event like Afcon which requires more than booking a meeting venue and per diems.
Remember the maiden Tunisia 2004 and Egypt 2006 events had the support of the Warriors Trust and the 2006 Organizing Committee. The government was heavily involved as they were well briefed by the then ZIFA, something that is yet to happen under Kamambo leadership.
We can not afford the 2017 debacle which is a classic big event management disaster as evidenced by the infamous Rainbow Towers strike by the Warriors, a scene that shamed the then ZIFA leadership and embarrassed the Presidium.
We know players troop into camp in May, just weeks from now and by which time all templates and attendant resources and logistics should be in place given the economic ecosystem obtaining.
Leaving ZIFA alone under the radarless captaincy of the captured Kamambo and the joke Joseph Mamutse wasting away in the CEO office is Russian roulette we can not fathom. Government, industry and commerce and the whole football family including Yours Truly, should join hands to make Egypt 2019 an eventful exercise.
We know Kamambo is limited in more ways than one…..he still struggles with simple issues like suspensions, disciplinary, Human Resources, boardroom appetite for rumours, procurement (Umbro deal never went to tender now gone sour),corporate governance challenges and financial incest.
Oh no, there seems to be no network coverage over 53 Livingstone Avenue, blighted by the Cosafa hosting debacle, where on Thursday, Mamutse, Phelimon Machana and a new lawyer, Chenaimoyo Gumiro, yes that guy who was in that handpicked Phil Chiyangwa Electoral Committee, stood before the Cosafa Disciplinary Committee in Johannesburg. Ironically, Machana is a member of the Cosafa Finance Committee while Chiyangwa remains President.
The determination of the Cosafa hosting case will be handed down next week. With all this including the unfinished Gift Banda suspension case will surely chew in more time, effort and money for ZIFA to start preparation for Afcon which starts on June 21.
Oh by the way The Page has it on good authority that President Kamambo who has gagged his executive members and has threatened them with suspensions, Chiyangwa style, if they coughed has promised all the members of the ZIFA assembly seats on the plane, accommodation and subsistence for the duration of Afcon. Imagine all the 62 members of ZIFA, just over half of them voted for him on December 16.
Really? Where is ZIFA that kind of money from? Obviously he personally does not have that kind of money. So, he is still in the election mode? He is electioneering with our Afcon ticket. Why? Are those not corrupt tendencies? So he is telling us that the ZIFA councillors are too gullible to buy that dry tobacco cigarette (chimonera).
Surely the subscriber you have dialed is outside the network coverage, please try again later – ZIFA and the disbanded ZACC same WhatsApp group.
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