Suspended Zifa board members breathe fire

Philemon Jambaya

Suspended Zifa board members came out guns blazing yesterday against the utterances made by Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation Minister Kirsty Coventry that Zimbabwe is not in a rush to have its suspension lifted by Fifa.

Coventry also said that a member of the suspended board is going to be convicted by Fifa statutes for sexual abuse.

The Minister also intimated that the suspended board looted US2 million

However, the suspended board members - led by Felton Kamambo - challenged the Minister to get her facts right and they have since served her with a letter of demand.

“We note with concern endless inaccurate, misleading, patently false, unsubstantiated and outright defamatory utterances recently made in Parliament on the 29th of March, 2023 by the Hon Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Culture, Kirsty Coventry during the question and answer session.

“This is not the first time the Minister has been quoted publicly making such malicious and damaging utterances as she once issued a press statement in 2022, where she alleged that the suspended Zifa board members were sex predators that were abusing innocent young women. We have all along refrained from responding to such baseless accusations out of our deep respect that we have for the Minister in her individual capacity, her Ministerial office and, more importantly, that of the Appointing authority. Sadly to say, the unprovoked attacks continue unabated.

"... The false assertion that Zifa was in acts of corruption failed to account for US$2 million given to them by government. No such money was ever given to Zifa during the three years the suspended board were in office. Zifa only received US$53 000 from government in 2019 and such was fully acquitted. The SRC also confirmed the same through their forensic audit on Zifa affairs that only RTGS$85 800 was paid to Zifa by government and that all such was full acquitted. The Minister therefore misrepresented to Parliament, the entire country and rest of the world that government gave Zifa, through her Ministry, a whopping US$2 million dollars which has not been acquitted to this day and justified Zifa board suspension on that false narrative,” reads part of the statement.

The fully-charged board said that it is untrue that three Zifa board members were accused of sexual harassment of female referees and that one former board member has since been found guilty by Fifa and another was facing disciplinary action.

The board also accused the Minister of lying to Parliament that the country is not in a hurry to be readmitted by Fifa but two days before her utterances in Parliament, they had a virtual meeting with Fifa.