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ZIFA president Phillip Chiyangwa – Picture by Wilson Kakurira

Grace Chingoma Senior Sports Reporter—
SPORT and Recreation Minister Makhosini Hlongwane has applauded his Cabinet colleague Supa Mandiwanzira for playing a key role in facilitating the NetOne sponsorship package that will bankroll the Warriors’ 2017 African Cup of Nations campaign. Mandiwanzira is Information, Communication and Technology, Postal and Courier Services Minister and oversees Government-owned mobile cellular company NetOne, among other parastatals.

NetOne, who have been providing handy support for football, sometimes heeding ZIFA’s last-minute calls for aid, yesterday took their romance with the national game to a higher level when they sealed a $250 000 package for the Warriors.

ZIFA president Phillip Chiyangwa chatting with Sports and recreation minister Makhosini Hlongwane

The money will be used sorely for the Warriors participation at the Nations Cup finals, which will run in Gabon from January 14 to February 5. NetOne’s timely boost will also help ZIFA avert the kind of problems such as bonus rows, which normally affect national teams ahead of such big tournaments.

Hlongwane revealed that Mandiwanzira had been instrumental in helping ZIFA secure the NetOne support. “I want to first and foremost thank my colleague, Minister of ICT Supa Mandiwanzira for doing this. First it is for working with all the parastatals that are under his area of influence to support sport in Zimbabwe.

“This is not the first time that the minister has come along to do that and before the current ZIFA board came, we worked very closely with the parastatals under Minister Mandiwanzira to make sure that the national team gets support, so I must really appreciate him most profoundly for that,” Hlongwane said.

Wariors coach Kalisto Pasuwa and team manager Sharif Mussa

Hlongwane also commended Mandiwanzira for taking “a fresh stance in appointing key personnel in some of the parastatals.

“Secondly, I must appreciate him for appointing sports persons to become chairs of those companies that fall under his ministry and one such person is Mr Peter Chingoka, well renowned sports administrator, having worked at the helm of cricket for many years and is now acting chair of NetOne and I hope that he is going to be confirmed substantive so that he can make those decisions without fear.

“So I want to appreciate Minister Mandiwanzira for that.

“When we have a sports person at the helm of an institution such as NetOne, when the sport movement approaches them to discuss matters around resources in sport, the conversation is not a difficult one because he is aware of the challenges they face,” said Hlongwane.

The acting chairperson Chingoka said they have unveiled the funds as they have done before to ZIFA and the $250 000 package is exclusively for the Warriors AFCON excursion.

He also congratulated the ZIFA president Philip Chiyangwa for clinching the COSAFA presidency in South Africa last weekend.

“In the past few years, NetOne has come on board to support football. Last year in August, the Mighty Warriors were on the verge of failing to fulfil an Olympic qualifying game against Cameroon and as NetOne, we came to the rescue and they qualified for the Olympics.

“In September, the Warriors almost failed to fulfil the Africa Cup of Nations qualifier and we chipped in with $100 000 and as we go to Gabon, we are happy to have played our part.

“I am pleased to announce NetOne, One Fusion $250 000 sponsorship to the team,” said Chingoka.

NetOne are also running a promotion for football fans through a SMS platform for all NetOne subscribers, where the fans stand to win 10 tickets to Gabon by simply sending a SMS to a short code, answering questions related to AFCON which will be asked on the platform.

In receiving, the sponsorship package, ZIFA boss Chiyangwa, said he will make sure that the association, which is still saddled by a huge debt will not lose a single cent of the money to their long list of creditors.

“We were at 53 Livingstone, but we had to vacate the premises because of debt collectors. “We will be confronting the creditors in the New Year and see if we can resolve and cut a deal since the debts were accumulated in our absence.

“I don’t want the money to go into a ZIFA account and suddenly get a garnishee order or court order, that’s why I said any sponsorship will go directly to the recipients and not through ZIFA so that no creditor can get hold of it,’’ Chiyangwa said.

Sports and recreation minister Makhosini Hlongwane shares a lighter moment with NetOne acting board chairman Peter Chingoka

Chiyangwa also assured Warriors coach Callisto Pasuwa, who was also present at the ceremony in the company of his players that when they report for camp, their allowances would be sorted since the money has already been availed.

The ZIFA boss also waded into the national team selection and backed the selection of his coach, who announced at the weekend the 31-member squad, which is expected to go into camp early next week to begin preparations for Gabon.

There has been a lot of debate around the selection, especially on the social media platforms and the ZIFA president jokingly said he also interferes with the selection but always listens to the coach when he explains to him how he would have come up with his squads.

“These players who are in the squad are the same players who qualified the team. “If he puts in new ones today because they have done well in a particular game and then they lose, the same people will start complaining why he changed the team that has been winning all along.

“There are many more qualifiers and tournaments that will come, so those in top form today will get their chance to play for the national team,” said Chiyangwa.