WHEN a national team in training and conditioning itself for a life or death encounter fails to secure lunch and has to do with a cup of tea as an alternative, this is beyond a crisis.
The national soccer Under 23 team in camp preparing for the CAF Under-23 Championship qualifier against South Africa, failed to get lunch because the football mother body, the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA), is said to not have paid for food.
As this nasty drama unfolded their arch-rivals in South Africa were walloping Rwanda in a friendly match in preparation for a meeting with the literally hungry Young Warriors.
The team has been in training without head coach Calisto Pasuwa because ZIFA have not honoured its promise to pay him his dues.
All the above is not surprising, it’s normal; it’s what is to be expected because ZIFA is dead.
ZIFA is not in the intensive care unit, it is not in rehabilitation, it is not on life support.
ZIFA is at this moment a bloated, rotting cadaver.
That is the truth, period.
A tonne of cosmetics and propping it up will not make it any more appealing.
A new body, vibrant, full of life is what is required.
Cuthbert Dube and his entire board must vacate office.
I am surprised that there are people outraged by sentiments expressed by FIFA development officer for Southern and Eastern Africa, Ashford Mamelodi.
Commenting on Zimbabweans’ rage on disqualification from the 2018 World Cup qualifiers he asked; “But my question which should be answered by somebody in this country, is would you have honoured those (2018 World Cup) fixtures?
“They could have been drawn in Russia today and the next thing you guys (media) would have been on them for not honouring the fixtures.
“People don’t seem to understand the extent to which ZIFA is in debt.
“If ZIFA was a corporate, they would have ceased operating, they would have been stopped by law.”
Mamelodi’s sentiments maddening, angering or offensive as they might be are the truth.
What I find maddening is not Mamelodi, but the fact that there is an acknowledgment from the ordinary folk, government right up to the FIFA corridors of power that ZIFA is dead, yet no action is being taken.
Government concedes that ZIFA have failed the nation, the Deputy Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Tabitha Kanengoni-Malinga said so in parliament.
“What we are saying as Government is that we might not be allowed to interfere, but we have an opinion and those who voted these people, namely Cuthbert Dube, should come to their senses and remove these people because they are doing nothing for Zimbabwe,” she said in parliament.
However, Government can do something, it has the final say in issues and matters Zimbabwean, it can today fire the entire ZIFA board.
And at this point in time it can, for we have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
The rot and stench at ZIFA is so bad that no sane corporate board would want to pour its hard earned cash into the institution.
The lone sponsor that can be found just wants to buy the team air tickets, at least they know that those funds for travelling cannot be abused, unokurumidza wabatwa if the team fails to travel.
It is time that sterner measures are taken.
Who is Cuthbert Dube to hold the nation to ransom?
Since coming into office in 2010, he has just watched a single Warriors’ game, an exhibition match against Brazil.
But he has been to the World Cup and some other international matches.
It is futile to keep repeating the transgressions of Dube, they are well known.
Now that we have been suspended from the World Cup qualifiers we have nothing to lose.
Government must intervene and disband the whole ZIFA and appoint a new board.
Current players such as captain Willard Katsande have been prejudiced, but if action is not taken now, more will be prejudiced in the future.
If the Ministry of Sport as well as the Sport and Recreation Commission lack the spine to do what must be done, then there is always the legal route to take.
It will be nothing new; presently the international board FIFA has officials being investigated for corruption and criminal activities.
We can also begin investigating ZIFA.
It is on record that grants availed by FIFA for football development in the country cannot be accounted for by the local mother board.
Where did that money go?
Dube must be answerable.
If found guilty of abuse of office and funds then he must be prosecuted and incarcerated.
Cuthbert must go, he is no soccer god.
One cannot help, but wish if Zimbabweans, if the various authorities do not wish to act, do a jambanja at number 53 Livingstone Avenue, Harare.
Perhaps that is the only ‘language’ Dube might understand.