Mlotshwa opts for the mute route as domestic footb...

Mlotshwa opts for the mute route as domestic football continues to burn

Gerald Mlotshwa - The Zimbabwe Independent

Hope Chizuzu

Gerald Mlotshwa is the best man for this wedding. He is not a charlatan nor is he a showbiz lawyer. He struts lines like a laboratory scientist...never in a hurry but he holds a key to a public vault.

And the public want to know the fate of their football and yet weeks after the SRC supremo communicated with Fifa in the aftermath of the BDO audit report, he has muted while maintaining his splendid isolation.

Why has Mlotshwa muted and not shared the Fifa communication, a response to the same over the status of Zifa?

The public wants to know when Zifa suspension will be lifted. Lately, even the government interest has also heightened with politicians keen to add it as election variables.

Even some ministers who have been sleepwalking in offices have suddenly found the mojo to make football a serious subject of their conversations.

Even Kirsty Coventry, the responsible minister has been torpedoed in the queue, as the battle for football control takes a step to the cliff.

Yet in all that organized madness, Mlotshwa sits urbane, conditioned and distant with an important message from the Zurich HQ firmly parked in his personal file.

Why? Is the message too deflating? Is it a funeral telegram? But, The Page has it that Fifa advised Mlotshwa that the suspension would be lifted immediately if crooks - Failton Kamambo, Phelimon Machana and Bryton Malandule are restored to the executive committee.

The Fifa communication added that they are aware it is not SRC remit to restore the recalled trio, whom the whole world know have one or two things they did wrong while in charge of our game.

Granted.

The Fifa admitted the SRC lifted the suspension of the executive committee allowing for the same to exercise their authority and operate as they have been doing since, with vice president Gift Banda leading the Exco.

But Fifa want the Zifa Congress reconsider their decision to recall the trio. This is what is beyond both Fifa and SRC. Both have no such power nor jurisdiction to commute. That rests with Congress.

It is the job of Congress, the same whose mandate expired last year, creating an interesting constitutional headache we now have.

Is this what Mlotshwa is finding too asphyxiating to communicate or he can not stand or contemplate seeing Kamambo, Machana and Malandule, clear crooks back in football trenches, even for minutes?

Or he is not sure if he can convince Banda to convince Congress to reconsider their decision to recall the crooks, who even if they return, are tainted enough for bleach?

Even Fifa know they can not vouch for the crooks, although for their institutional ego, Fifa, the Vatican of corruption, would rather the crooks are back as long as their power looks unbreached at the hands of governments.

Enough for third party interference.

Is this what Mlotshwa is emotionally battling with for him to not have shared the news from Fifa?

The world is not surprised at Fifa. It is an open secret that Gianni Infantino fronts the biggest cartel in the world. If Qatar could host a World Cup, who is Zimbabwe to stand up to bullies?

Fifa is a haven of criminals, coded and otherwise. Their modus operandi is known, opaque and shameful. It is a diety.

They dole out money and use that to protect their interests and usurp republican authorities as they protect their people.

If only countries pour money into football coffers and dwarfs the Fifa 2.0 bribes which are effective financial albatrosses around poor nations necks.

So, it is no different they're standing in the corner of Kamambo, dirty as he is. So can Congress resolve to reverse their recall decision when they meet on January 28?

Is Congress ready to make such a call? Or some of them are afraid the vindictive Machana will persuade Kamambo to suspend and fire some of them?

What will the SRC do if such a decision is taken as Sec 30 of the SRC Act compels them to ask Zifa to tick all constitutional boxes in respect of the law?

Fifa would love to count the remaining term of office from the days of chaos, meaning an extra out of constitution days (breaching the SRC Act, triggering de-registration with the regulator) for Zifa.

As things stand, Mlotshwa would rather share the news and allow the real powers, the Congress to exercise their authority for the sake of the game.

The country can not afford to miss another isolation. The Afcon 2025 and World Cup 2026 draws are soon and Zimbabwe has to be in the hat.

But is Kamambo and crew good for the game? Has Congress not failed by ceding too much power to the Exco yet they should be the ultimate?

The Fifa Congress is in Kigali in March. Should the AGM on January 28 also resolve to reverse the Kamambo and crew recall and trigger the lifting of suspension?

But, why is Mlotshwa quiet, even after the restructuring committee, who worked for year without being paid a penny, wound their job and handed a report?