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Sports Reporter
ZIFA chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze has been unmasked as a serial liar, who deliberately tried to fool the nation, after documents surfaced yesterday proving that sports consultant Tinashe Maimba Mapuranga, indeed, worked for the association as a protocol officer.

It’s the latest blow to Mashingaidze’s integrity and this will give more ammunition to his critics who now believe he has crossed the line and his tendency to lie, as a defensive tool to dupe the nation, can no longer be accepted from a man who holds such an important public position.

Mashingaidze has already been called a pathological and habitual liar by former Warriors’ coach Ian Gorowa and fitness trainer Gerald Maguranyanga and yesterday he was under a fresh attack after documents emerged showing he might have deliberately tried to mislead the domestic football family with a pack of lies.

“We have seen Tinashe Mapuranga granting interviews to print and electronic media and masquerading as a sports consultant, he is also claiming that he was a ZIFA protocol officer,” Mashingaidze said in a statement released on Wednesday.

“His assignments at ZIFA were confined with ad-hoc and minor missions at hand then. He was relieved of his duties on account of dishonesty.

“He also had inadequacies and serious deficiencies in terms of dealing with our structures.

“MR MAPURANGA’s CLAIMS THAT HE WAS A MEMBER OF THE PROTOCOL COMMITTEE ARE FALSE. Protocol relations activities fall under the mainstream protocol committee and he was NEVER a member of that particular committee.

“We dismiss Mapuranga’s wayward behaviour with the contempt it deserves. Any organisation or individual that has had an interaction with Mapuranga during which he could have purported to be a ZIFA employee should report such incidents to the nearest ZIFA provincial office or the head office.”

However, documents in the possession of The Herald show that Mapuranga served in the ZIFA protocol committee and a letter, signed by Mashingaidze, on August 30, 2010, when he was the acting chief executive, confirms the sports consultant’s appointment to perform protocol duties for the Warriors ahead of their trip to Liberia for a Nations Cup qualifier.

“We hereby confirm your appointment to the Senior National Team’s Protocol department on the occasion of the team’s trip to Liberia for the 2012 African Cup of Nations fixture against Liberia on 5 September 2010,” Mashingaidze wrote to Mapuranga.

“The team departs on 3 September, 2010 and returns on 7 September, 2010. Wishing you all the best in your new appointment.”

On September 16 that year, Mashingaidze chaired the first multi-sectoral events Head of Department meeting for the Zimbabwe/Cape Verde Nations Cup tie, which was played here in Harare and Mapuranga, was among those who attended with the minutes of that meeting, with his role clearly spelt out as ‘PROTOCOL.’

Minutes of the second multi-sectoral events Head of Department meeting, held at ZIFA House on September 21, 2010, for the same match, and chaired this time by Tafi Chitsungo, a former ZIFA employee, also describe Mapuranga as a member of the “ZIFA Protocol Committee”.

An official ZIFA delegation sheet for the Mighty Warriors who travelled to Zambia describe Mapuranga as the “Head of Protocol”, while a copy of the ZIFA Standing Committees shows that former Women Football Boss, Mavis Gumbo, was the head of protocol and Mapuranga is one of the five members.

The COSAFA Organising Committee Directory shows that Mapuranga was assigned to the Events and Ceremonies Committee and he is described as “ZIFA Protocol”.

On March 18, 2011, Mashingaidze also wrote another letter to Mapuranga to accompany the national team that was travelling to Mali for a Nations Cup qualifier.

“We hereby request for the release of your esteemed person and office for your assignment with the Senior National Team from 21 to 28 March 2011,” Mashingaidze wrote.

“The team will be travelling to Mali for the AFCON 2012 qualifier match against Mali on 26 March 2011 and you are requested to go to Mali as an Advance Party to check and confirm on the team’s welfare logistics whilst in Mali.

“You will be travelling to Mali on 21 March, 2011. May you kindly contact the Secretariat in respect of the fixtures, house-keeping and other logistical issues.”

On October 6, 2011, ZIFA president Cuthbert Dube, in a letter, even described Mapuranga as an “effective officer” for the way he had discharged his duties, as a protocol officer, after the Warriors travelled to Cape Verde for a Nations Cup qualifier.

Mapuranga was also the ZIFA protocol officer tasked with clearing the Zambia women national team when they travelled through Chirundu in September 2010 and, after using his personal vehicle and fuel for the trip, he billed the Association $636,50 with the invoice being sent directly to Mashingaidze.

Yesterday, Mapuranga told his story.

“As far as I am concerned, I think Mashingaidze has become a wayward liar and he is not even ashamed of that and it’s a shame because he holds a very important public position and one wonders how many times a day, or week, he is trying to fool the nation,” said Mapuranga.

“I was part of Cuthbert Dube’s campaign team and I was appointed protocol officer and I stand by everything that I said on Game Plan (ZBC weekly football magazine programme), I have an appointment letter from Jonathan Mashingaidze to that effect and I travelled to Mali, Liberia, Cape Verde, Angola, Zambia, Botswana, South Africa executing my duties.

“If I wasn’t a protocol officer, why is it that I was tasked to be FIFA president, Sepp Blatter’s aide, during his visit to Zimbabwe, I was with him from the moment his plane arrived to the time he left and how do you task someone, without any official role in ZIFA, to be the aide of such a very important person?

“How could I do all that without ZIFA’s blessings?

“The reality is that I have had a fallout with Mashingaidze and some people at 53 Livingstone Avenue because I have questioned some activities, which I feel are corrupt, which are happening there, but even after that fallout, I acknowledge that Mashingaidze is the ZIFA CEO.

“The least that he can do is to acknowledge that I worked as a protocol officer, but that should not blind me from asking where the FIFA FAP funds are going, are they being invested where they should be going, and why people who say they have not been paid for nine months are so passionate to keep working, what are they deriving from their work?

“I have never swindled any money and never sold any information for a fee and my advice to Mashingaidze is that, luckily, in the five or so years I was within those structures, I managed to get a lot of files and I have four boxes of those files.

“He accuses me of dishonesty but when he makes such lies, is that honesty?”

Mashingaidze accused Mapuranga of allegedly having a “propensity to leak confidential information for a fee.

“He demonstrated gross failure to account for financial resources given to him ahead of provincial awards ceremonies.”