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Petros Kausiyo in RUSTENBURG, South Africa
ZIMBABWE referee Ruzive Ruzive has hogged the limelight for the wrong reasons once again with the Harare official this time being sent packing for controversial officiating at the ongoing COSAFA Cup tournament here.

Ruzive, who has had his bad days in some of the domestic Premiership games he handled, had been ranked highly when he arrived in the South African North West Province with the Zimbabwean rated among the top four referees for the tournament.

He had also lived up to his billing with a fine showing in the centre in his opening assignment — a Group B game between Lesotho and Madagascar.

But on Sunday night, Ruzive was leaving Rustenburg in shame after he was expelled for controversially handling the Group B decider between Madagascar and Swaziland with his two glaring mistakes ensuring that it was the Indian Ocean islanders who progressed to the quarter-final at the expense of a bitter Sihlangu.

The two teams drew the game 1-1 and finished with the same number of points — seven — but Madagascar advanced on the basis that they had scored one goal more.

Madagascar were left celebrating a first ever place in the last eight but the COSAFA referees committee chaired by Namibian John Muinjo has been exercising zero tolerance on poor officiating and also expelled Lesotho referee Osiase Koto.

Once handed a huge lifeline by Ruzive, Madagascar seem to have grabbed it with both hands and only on Monday, they stunned tournament guests Ghana 2-1 to secure a semi-final date with Botswana, who also registered their first win over South Africa when edging Bafana Bafana 7-6 on penalties.

Fellow Zimbabwean referee, Norman Matemera, has since been roped in to replace Ruzive and his first assignment at this COSAFA Cup was being the fourth official in the quarter-final clash between Mozambique and Malawi.

It also emerged that the COSAFA referees committee also sought to have an official from a country that is not involved in the quarter-final matches. But it is Ruzive’s indifferent showing that cast a shadow on the refereeing standards in Zimbabwe.

Before the tournament started, Ruzive joined the rest of the panel of referees at the competition for a FIFA workshop that was held in conjunction with COSAFA at which they were prepared for the regional event.

Sources indicated that Ruzive, just like his Lesotho counterpart Koto, had been found guilty of poor performance with the former’s decisions playing a key role between a place in the last eight for Madagascar and an early exit for Swaziland.

“COSAFA referees committee monitors every second of the game and a day after the matches the referees are grouped and they are de-briefed on their performances. Where they would have done well they are praised and they are also corrected on where they would have made mistakes.

“It is during the de-briefings that the referees are also asked to explain the decisions they would have made where serious mistakes and serious questions would have arisen,’’ the sources said.

It emerged that in Ruzive’s case the Harare referee had made two crucial decisions which were wrong and had a huge bearing on the outcome of the game with the first of the calls coming as early as the fourth minute when he awarded Madagascar a penalty.

Ruzive was then found wanting late on in the second half after he denied Swaziland a penalty from a deliberate handball by a Madagascar defender.

“Ruzive made two critical decisions which were wrong. He awarded Madagascar a penalty which was soft and failed to award a penalty to Swaziland from a clearly deliberate handball which saw Swaziland being eliminated.

“As a result those errors changed what would have been the result therefore the referee’s committee feels that any referee whose causes the elimination of another team must also leave with that team.

“What really surprised the referees committee is that Ruzive was excellent in his first game and it was like watching another person in the second game with the way he performed poorly”, the sources said.

Ruzive’s actions must have also embarrassed his compatriot Felix Tangawarima who is the COSAFA referees manager and was responsible for selecting all the officials handling the tournament’s games.