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Tshinga Dube

Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE Football Trust chairman Tshinga Dube has quit his post, exactly two years after he was appointed to lead a group of some of the country’s top corporate leaders, disillusioned that his team did not make the required impact in pulling the troubled game out of its quagmire.

The Trust was unveiled in February 2013 with the mandate of helping ZIFA dissolve their crippling debt, open new revenue streams for the bankrupt organisation and help the country’s football governing body shed off its poor image.

ZIFA president Cuthbert Dube described the Trust as a breath of fresh air that would transform the association and consign the challenges that have stalked the organisation into the history books.

But two years into their journey, Tshinga Dube has had enough and, in recent weeks, has been disillusioned by events at ZIFA, notably when creditors raided the business premises of board member Ben Gwarada and attached property over the association’s debt.

He publicly came out in support of Gwarada and said he regretted ever going to bed with ZIFA.

He said he was disappointed that two years after they acquired land for ZIFA near the Harare International Airport, no development has taken place there and the place remains “a bush.”

Tshinga Dube said other projects they had lined up did not take off because ZIFA boss Dube was “apparently too busy with other pressing issues to focus on the strong foundations of this board.”

Against that background, said Tshinga Dube, he felt it was time to move on.

“I regret to inform you that due to circumstances beyond my control, I am forced to tender my resignation as the chairman of the Board of Trustees of ZIFA,” Tshinga Dube wrote in a letter addressed to ZIFA president Dube.

“It is very clear to you and all the members that we were very keen to assist as the Board of Trustees to reach greater heights in soccer but we were rendered unable due to various reasons.

“It is not time to blame each other or point fingers at each other. It is not time to count cat paws on each other’s face but it is sufficient to say that it has been extremely difficult to achieve what we had aimed to do when we took up these appointments.

“As a result, we have made very little impact in the improvement of our soccer. However, it remains possible that there are a lot of opportunities that can be explored to improve our soccer.

“One of the ways is to take up a more serious attitude and we believe that more support from the central government will be required if we are going to make any impact in our soccer in the future.”

Tshinga Dube said while there was hope and relief when the Sport, Arts and Culture Ministry was created, it has dawned on them that the ministry wasn’t funded well enough to make a huge impact in helping football.

“We, however, believe that these are only teething problems and that in future more will be done to make it an effective Ministry that will be able to push our game to greater heights,” said Tshinga Dube.

“During our course of service, we worked very hard to establish (the) ZIFA Village and we were able to acquire a piece of land near the International Airport, thanks to (businessman) Masimba Msipa who donated this land to us , but we were unable to carry out any developments on this land.

“As a result, it remains but a bush.

“Other efforts to make this body a respectable one did not take off as you were apparently too busy with other pressing issues to focus on the strong foundations of this board.

“It is also well known that most of the board members were carefully selected from the corporate world to make it easier with fund-raising but I must say that there has been a lot of changes as most board members no longer sit or occupy their previous executive positions.

“However, the individuals might still be keen to continue with their services towards ZIFA and may be allowed to do so. I have written a number of emails to the Board seeking their opinion but have not been able to get any response due to this and many other reasons.

“I, therefore, wish to tender my resignation with immediate effect and wish to thank the President of ZIFA, chief executive officer and others in the administrative body for the wonderful opportunity you gave me of working with you and getting to understand the problems our soccer is facing.”

Last year, Patience Khumalo, a member of the Trust, painted a grim picture of Zimbabwean football.

“It’s a disaster. If I was CEO of any football entity I would resign,” Khumalo said. “As a Football trust, if we are to be asked what we have done, what have we achieved, I can comfortably say NOTHING.

“Why? Because we’ve done exactly that. Why? Because ZIFA are still able to run parallel and generate expenses because the national team has plans that, as a Football Trust, we are not aware of and these things are just moving forward.

“For starts when you have the ZIFA CEO coming into the Football Trust meetings, you would expect him to be the one who will drive it by telling us ZIFA’s plans so that we distribute tasks to different committees of the Trust.

“But if (1) he is not present or (2) he is not talking, literally not talking, it becomes a big problem because the CEO is the one who should drive but you can’t get that out.”

Meanwhile, the Sunday News reported at the weekend that a creditor has made moves to attach the ZIFA Bulawayo Offices.

The newspaper said the Bulawayo offices are set to be auctioned on March 13 unless the association makes immediate plans to offset a debt owed to CBZ Bank. Addressing delegates at a ZIFA Southern Region annual meeting, regional chairman, Musa Mandaza, said the Bulawayo office was set to go under the hammer on March 13.

“The problems bedevilling our national association run deeper than we had envisaged,” Mandaza said.

“At the beginning of February, we received papers from the courts advising us that our offices would go under the hammer on 13 March 2015 over debts owed by the national association.

“We are still awaiting official communication from the national association on the status of the matter.”