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Petros Kausiyo and Daniel Nemukuyu
ZIFA will now have to wait a little longer before they can conclude their dissolution bid after the High Court once again struck off the application from the roll to enable the bankrupt soccer mother body to follow proper procedures.

The High Court decision comes as it also emerged that ZIFA president Philip Chiyangwa has been working round the clock to consult with Government and other key stakeholders to ensure the move to disband is done properly.

Although the High Court had already set July 6 as the date for the hearing, Chiyangwa is understood to have now strongly advocated a delay in the application in which ZIFA are seeking to be granted an order to dissolve. The delay would then allow the ZIFA president and his executive committee time to follow the procedures as recommended by FIFA, Government and the association’s statutes.

Chiyangwa, who is expected to arrive back home this morning from France where he has been attending the Euro 2016 championships, will lead the ZIFA assembly’s deliberations on the matter at their extraordinary meeting in the capital on Saturday.

“It is his (Chiyangwa’s) considered view that what is important right now is to ensure that by the time we go back to court ZIFA would have done a proper thing and the meeting of the assembly will get to address all the sticking issues.

“FIFA, who still recognise Chiyangwa as the legitimate leader of the association, have also been constantly communicating with him, giving him guidelines to follow on this matter,’’ said a source close to the goings on at ZIFA.

In the High Court yesterday, ZIFA’s sequestration application was, for the third time, removed from the roll after a judge also noted that the soccer body hurriedly went for dissolution without surrendering their assets to the Sport and Recreation Commission as required by Section 77 of their constitution.

The debt-ridden football governing body is seeking sequestration and permission to hand over their problems to a trustee.

Section 77 (2) of the ZIFA constitution, Justice Mtshiya said, makes it a mandatory requirement for ZIFA to hand over assets to SRC in difficult times where dissolution will be the best option.

The judge also took issues with the association’s decision to file the application for sequestration and surrender at the High Court without attaching minutes of the final congress that led to the dissolution of the association.

Justice Mtshiya also directed ZIFA lawyers to consider the provisions of the law requiring the proposed trustee to confirm willingness and ability to take over management of the troubled association.

The removal of the matter from the roll will allow ZIFA lawyer Stephen Zvinavakobvu of Zvinavakobvu Law Chambers to address the raised queries.

And when ZIFA are ready, the matter may be brought back to the court roll for determination.

Yesterday’s postponement becomes the third time in three weeks and it’s also against the background of the developments at the court that ZIFA still subsists.

Initially, Zvinavakobvu sought postponement of the matter to allow him to consider a report filed by the Master of the High Court in opposition to the sequestration petition.

On that first day, the judge noted that the ZIFA constitution which was attached to the application was faint and not legible.

The judge then directed Zvinavakobvu to replace the faint document with a legible one.

On the second appearance, the same court realised that the lawyers had not replaced the copy of the constitution. The judge removed the matter off the roll to allow Zvinavakobvu to attend to the issue of the constitution copy.

ZIFA announced on June 4 that they had dissolved on the basis that the association is insolvent.

A new entity called the National Football Association of Zimbabwe was immediately formed under the same leadership as that which managed ZIFA, but a fresh problem arose in that the soccer body also abruptly cancelled the workers’ contracts.

After announcing the dissolution ZIFA approached the High Court seeking permission to surrender its problems to a trustee, who will be appointed by the High Court to deal with the entity’s debts that are now in excess of $6 million.

ZIFA nominated Freddie Chimbari of Fremus Executor Services as an appropriate trustee to manage their affairs.

The Master of High Court opposed the move by ZIFA arguing that it was a deliberate attempt to avoid paying their debts to the prejudice of the creditors.

In a report by Additional Master of High Court (insolvency) Reuben Mukavhi, it was indicated that ZIFA dissolved on June 4 this year and that it does not have any legal standing to sue or be sued separately from its membership.

The Additional Master accused ZIFA of trying to defraud their creditors.

“I must report to the court that there appears to be some fraud against the creditors of ZIFA by ZIFA,” he said.

“The court will see that the members of ZIFA voted to dissolve ZIFA under Article 77 of the ZIFA Constitution.

“Though it is not mentioned anywhere in the application, it is interesting to note that a new outfit, going by the name National Football Association of Zimbabwe came into being at the same time that ZIFA was dissolved.

“The new outfit is composed of the same members and office bearers as ZIFA had.

“In fact, it would appear that all that was changed was the name of the association, the membership and the objects remaining the same,” he said.

“It then is inescapable conclusion that the said dissolution of ZIFA and the simultaneous constitution of NFAZ were simply a method by the members of evading paying the creditors,” Mukavhi argued.

In the affidavit that he deposed, Chiyangwa narrated the woes haunting the debt-ridden national football body. Chiyangwa said ZIFA has been running a loss since dollarisation and even if all the remaining assets were to be sold, the debt can never be cleared.

ZIFA’s major creditors include CBZ Bank ($1 795 000); Pandhari Lodge ($268 436); Vogel Weber ($21 000); ZIFA Ad Hoc Committee ($600 000); Buymore Investments ($438 222) and Led Travel and Tours ($244 527).