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Sharuko on Saturday

Now, if our national game can’t write off a US$1 675 payment, made to its greatest footballer, Peter Ndlovu, in his time of need, and we see it appearing in the ZIFA accounts as a debt, surely how then do we justify the payment of more than US$200 000 to someone like Maycock to investigate something?

THE British South Africa Police have a hyperactive website where its former members, dotted around the world, undertake nostalgic trips of a bygone era in Rhodesia, when they used to enforce the law in this country and also battle freedom fighters in the war of liberation

Those who run the website say the “pages are dedicated to former members of the British South Africa Police who served with the “Regiment” until July 1980, when the force ceased to exist,” and the purpose of the site “is to keep alive the memories of the ‘Regiment’ and maintain a former member network.”

The website concedes that the BSAP evolved from a police force into one that engaged “in full counter-insurgency operations alongside the military in all operational spheres,” and as the war escalated, “it experienced expansion to service its obligations in the war, including the introduction of National Service policemen and larger Special Branch and Ground Coverage operations.”

There are BSAP branches in Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and the United Kingdom where, last year, the members unveiled a new plaque to commemorate the centenary of the formation of the BSAP Regimental Association.

Their members can even order a digital version of the Outpost, for £30 a copy plus postage and packaging, which features all issues of the police magazine from 1947 to 1980, while 2014 BSAP calendars are also available at £6,50 each and profits are deposited into a welfare fund to assist former members of the force.

There are a number of images that have been archived on the website and they include pictures of “various terrorist bomb attacks in Salisbury 1977/1978”, the “Salisbury Railway bomb blast, August 8, 1977,” the “Salisbury Petrol Depot Fire, 11th December 1978,” and the “Salisbury Woolworths Bomb (Blast) midday, 6 August, 1977, killing 11 and injuring 76 (people).”

There are also regular updates of death notices of the members, on the website, and on July 17, 2011, Tony Maycock, a decorated former BSAP officer, advised his colleagues of the death of “Peter Palmer, on 10 July 2011, in Harare.”

The issue of pensions has been a dominant one on the BSAP website but Maycock is unlikely to lose a lot of sleep over that, given that he is sitting on a cool US$204 871, plus interest, in potential earnings for his role as the investigator of the team, led by Retired Justice Ahmed Ebrahim, tasked with ZIFA to deal with Asiagate.

The team completed their work two years ago but payments, from a virtually bankrupt association carrying a huge weight of debt on its shoulders, while its revenue streams have expectedly been non-existent, have not been forthcoming.

On October 3, the members of that committee filed a lawsuit at the High Court, claiming unpaid fees to the tune of about US$600 000, plus interest, after ZIFA breached their commitment to pay off the amount, in four tranches, between May this year and February next year.

The bulk of the money, US$204 871, is owed to Maycock who, overnight, has transformed himself from being someone who has spent his life in the shadows, as a decorated former BSAP officer, into the public spotlight that comes with being the second biggest individual creditor, on ZIFA’s books, after Cuthbert Dube.

Given that Maycock received a part payment for his job, which was done over a period of about a year-and-a-half years, it means he probably deserves a special place, on the BSAP website, as one of the highest earning former officers, for a single assignment, since the majority of them retired and found refuge in a host of other countries around the world.

It’s such a substantial amount, which could be around US$300 000 by the time the legal processes are completed, he could even donate half of it, to the welfare fund that assists former members of the BSAP force, making him an even bigger hero within that community, and still retaining enough to lead a very comfortable life in his age of retirement.

He could even donate a big chunk of his earnings, from domestic football, to those who keep the BSAP website running, keeping it online for the next 20 years, celebrating those moments when this paramilitary police force clashed with the freedom fighters, crying out loud and clear for Rhodesia and everything that it represented.

SOMETHING JUST DOESN’T SOUND RIGHT
Black Mambas, the police team, has been around for a long time and that, alone, means that we have a number of football people, either as former players or club officials, who have either been policemen, are policemen or have retired from the force, including top-notch detectives, whose association with our football is well documented.

Cosmas Pritchard — one of the stars of State House Tornadoes team of the ‘80s — rose to become one of the top cops in this country, a man whose association with our football can’t be questioned and will always be celebrated.

Lovemore Marange hadn’t been appointed to his current portfolio, as ZIFA security officer, when the decision to engage Maycock was being made by the association and, given that he had distinguished himself as a referee of note, for years, while doubling up in his other full-time job as a policeman, he comes across as a football man who could have done that job.

That the association have seen him suitable to be employed as their security officer, in the past year, means that they are satisfied with his credentials and, given his service to this game in the past, whatever payment they would have given him, for doing the investigations, it’s something people would say he deserves from a game he has served with distinction.

There are scores of others in this category, too many to mention in one instalment of this blog, who could have done this job even better, and at a cost that would not have left ZIFA facing this huge debt and the possibility of having more property attached to try and service a debt that is ballooning out of control.

But ZIFA decided to ignore all these men, even though paying them would have painted this beautiful picture of a game paying back its former stars for their distinguished service, and settled for someone with no proven links to our game, either in Rhodesia or in Zimbabwe.

The association then committed themselves to paying Maycock — for his ad-hoc service spread over around one-and-half years, more money than what Dynamos have earned — in winning the last three straight league titles, more than what three Classes of the Glamour Boys, involving about 80 or so men, have sweated for in those three seasons.

More than twice what our Premiership champions will take home, after a gruelling championship race set to go to the wire, this year, more than what Mbada Diamonds will invest in prize money, for their season-ending football tournament this year, more than what the Warriors earned, for finishing fourth, in a CHAN tournament backed by CAF and their international sponsors, in South Africa this year.

Interestingly, at the same time that ZIFA were committing themselves to paying Maycock such outrageous amounts, to investigate a case, our mother body was failing to send the Under-17 national team to Congo Brazzaville, for the second leg of their 2013 CAF African Under-17 Championships, against the Central Africans, because they did not have money for such an assignment.

At the same time that Maycock was being assured that he would be paid a fortune, in excess of US$200 000, the Under-17s, who needed just US$20 000, which is exactly a tenth of that amount, to play on foreign soil, something that they badly needed as part of their development regime, were not being treated as top priority and, as we now all know, they failed to go to Brazzaville.

At the same time that Maycock was being given assurances that he would be paid his super earnings, with a percentage of it being sorted out, our Under-20 national team, needing just a fraction of that to travel to Angola for the second leg of their CAF African Youth Championships qualifier, were not being treated as priority and, as we now all know, they failed to go to Luanda.

Yes, our football leaders had the right to pursue their investigations, no one will ever question the importance of the exercise, but that should not have come at the expense of giving the best teenage football talent that we have in this country, who represented the future of this game, a chance to develop their skills taking on their rivals on the continent.

Their development, which could only be helped by international exposure, should not have been compromised by our football leadership prioritising the payment of people who were doing an investigation, including one who was supposed to get hundreds of thousands of dollars into his account, instead of the payment for their air tickets.

Is it just a coincidence, really, that of the players that we fielded in that Under-17 national team, which lost to Congo Brazzaville in the first leg at Rufaro 1-2 in October 2012, and still with a chance to overturn the deficit away from home, only ‘keeper Tatenda Makuruva has made strides to become a household name?

Few still remember that the skipper of the side was a pacy Allan Wilson forward called Vialla Tadzoka or his teammates — Munashe Muza, Stewart Muchineripi, James Ngulube, Langton Jakuchichi, Manuel Mandiranga, Bastos Chihowa?

At least, we will have the bulk of the Under-20s — Elvis and Kelvin Moyo, Nqobizita Masuku, Talent Dzumbunu, Kuda Mahachi, Knox Mutizwa, Munya Chiwara, Ralph Muduwiwa, Walter Musona.

God knows what would have happened to their game if US$600 000 was committed, in the past two years that most of them have been in international isolation, to their development as a group, who could meet regularly, and be exposed to playing foreign teams in competitive matches.

A CRUEL GAME THAT HAS NO PLACE FOR ITS PEOPLE
When Peter Ndlovu was injured in that car crash, which took the life of his brother Adam, US$1 675 was paid by ZIFA towards his medical examinations as the country prayed for its greatest ever footballer to live.

When you check the 2011 ZIFA audited accounts, that money is listed as part of the debt that the association owes to its president, Cuthbert Dube, who used his money, when Ndlovu needed that medical attention.

Now, if our national game can’t write off a US$1 675 payment, made to its greatest footballer in his time of need, and we see it appearing in the ZIFA accounts as a debt, surely how then do we justify the payment of more than US$200 000 to someone like Maycock to investigate something?
If Peter Ndlovu, who took us to two Nations Cup finals, and did so much during his career to give our football a profile on the international stage, finds his name being dragged into newspapers when a US$1 675 payment done by the association, when he was bed-ridden, is mentioned, how can we justify the payment of more than US$200 000 to an outsider who investigated a case, on an ad hoc basis, for about one-and-half years?

This game has never given George Shaya a cent, even though he was five-time Soccer Star of the Year, and when Savanna Tobacco gave him US$1 000 recently, there was such a huge uproar in some circles, but we find comfort when an outsider walks in and is given an assurance that he will be paid more than US$200 000.

Pearson Matare and Samson Choruwa had their careers cut short by injury, when they were very young, with the latter having shown a lot of promise in the national team, but once they got injured, the game turned its back on them and today their lives are an everyday struggle but the same game doesn’t question its conscience when our leaders commit themselves to paying an outsider US$200 000 for investigations.

Thanks to the good guys at Savanna Tobacco — Choruwa, Matare, Henry Chari and Simon Chuma were handed US$1 000 payments each — after some Dynamos fans decided to take matters into their hands and fund-raise for them, but even those little payments caused a huge uproar in our game the sponsors decided they won’t do it again.

Edmore Chitato died recently, a forgotten man, with swollen legs and a battered soul, dumped by the very game that toasted him as a hero when he was at the peak of his powers, which even commits itself to paying someone more than US$200 000 to an outsider for investigations while a generation of this game’s children have all turned destitute.

There are some people who feel that the game has been hijacked, taken away from the people who should own it, and it’s when such things happen that you begin to feel those people probably have a point.

At least, even if I have offended someone in this article, I have assurance that the BSAP won’t come to arrest me.

To God Be The Glory!

Come on United!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Di Mariaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

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