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DEAL DONE . . . Zifa lawyer Advocate Lewis Uriri (right) addresses the media soon after the High Court ruling while the association’s legal representative, Ralph Maganga (left), and communications manager Xolisani Gwesela (second from left) look on yesterday

Petros Kausiyo Deputy Sports Editor—
ZIFA elections scheduled for Saturday in Harare will go ahead as scheduled after the High Court yesterday dismissed an application by ZPC Kariba official Saidi Sangula to have the association barred from staging the polls. High Court judge Justice Francis Bere threw out Sangula’s application after deciding to hear the merits of the case.

Justice Bere, who for the fourth occasion heard the matter in his chambers, however, indicated that full reasons for his judgment would follow later.

Zifa and the Sport and Recreation Commission were cited as the first and second respondents in the matter and the fate of Saturday’s board elections rested on the outcome of the High Court case as the polls could have been stopped if Sangula had been granted the relief that he sought.

After throwing out the preliminary points raised by Zifa, the judge then dealt with the merits of the matter.
Although he acknowledged that there was urgency in Sangula’s application, Justice Bere questioned its timing and wondered why the former Zifa Northern Region chairman had not sought to stop the electoral process when polls for such affiliates like the Premier Soccer League, Women’s Football and the Regions were being held.

Sangula was represented by Advocate Eric Matinenga who was roped in last Friday to buttress the former Kambuzuma official’s legal team.

Matinenga ruled out an immediate appeal against the ruling and quipped that “some battles are won some are lost, so we will live to fight another day’’.

“There is no way we are going to appeal, if that aspect is to be considered one would need to look at various issues and then decide on what has been done and see if it is worthwhile appealing against the matter.

“When one looks at issues of this nature you do not just appeal for the sake of it, you must look at a host of issues and it may not just be about appealing.

“The fact that you do not appeal does not mean that you agree with the finding but there are other overriding factors and sometimes one says I will live to fight another day,’’ Matinenga said.

Zifa were represented by Advocate Lewis Uriri and the Harare lawyer said his clients would now proceed to conclude the election process following Justice Bere’s ruling.

Uriri also conceded that Zifa had been found wanting on the preliminary points that Sangula had raised, including the fact that the court had jurisdiction on the matter and that there was urgency in the application.

“The judge has dismissed the application to interdict the holding of the elections and what this means is that the elections will go ahead as scheduled on Saturday 29th March 2014.

“Basically what happened is that the judge first dealt with the preliminary points that had been taken, sadly, we were at the wrong end of the arguments in the preliminary points.

“He basically held that he would exercise his jurisdiction because there was a chance that the remedies that are available under the Zifa constitution may be inimical to the relief that was being sought so he exercised jurisdiction.

“He found out that the matter was urgent, he found that Mr Sangula had the legal standing to challenge the holding of the election,’’ Uriri said.

Uriri said Justice Bere had also looked at the merits of the Zifa arguments against the application and raised questions on the timing of Sangula’s bid given that he had not challenged the electoral process when it started from the lower rungs and had instead waited for its decisive moment.

“He then found on the merits of the matter that Mr Sangula had waited until the day of reckoning, he had watched things unveil and the timing of the application casts into doubt the bona fides of the application itself and that the election, as we speak, is about 99 percent complete in the sense that the election for the other Zifa affiliates, who provide delegates to the actual election, have already taken place and that, therefore, the applicant is best advised to take his options once the elections have been held.

“He said that his reasons would follow in due course if so requested and that is the extent to which we can discuss this matter,’’ Uriri said.
Zifa had also argued that Sangula’s application was not premised on an interim relief but a final order that would effectively nullify the results of the earlier polls.

It is against this background that Zifa legal representative Ralph Maganga said the association had “viewed with suspicion, the intentions of the court challenge”.

“The intention of this application raises suspicions and it seems to have been designed in such a way that it if granted it would then cause chaos in the administration of football in the country and even in the Zifa response to the Sports Commission it was noted with concern that Mr Sangula’s challenge was designed to make football ungovernable in this country,’’ Maganga said.

Zifa are expected to release the full line up of the candidates for places on the board but there is no doubting that the huge interest will be on the ultimate poll — the battle to become the association’s president for the next four years.

That race to lead the Zifa board is pitting incumbent Cuthbert Dube against the challenging trio of board member marketing Nigel Munyati, Harare City chairman Leslie Gwindi and former Zifa chairman Trevor Carelse-Juul.