Football fraternity further subjected to the pain ...

Football fraternity further subjected to the pain of Kamambo’s waiting game

Football stakeholders have to hold on for 6 weeks for progress on the trial of Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) president Felton Kamambo, after another deferment yesterday.

"My Lady, the defence counsel has advised that Admire Rubaya, representing the accused, is not able to attend this court as he is busy at the Supreme Court. Further, he is so, until October 27, 2022, which date he will be available for this court....” was the latest in a series of mostly defence engineered delays to progress in Kamambo’s trial.

Kamambo is facing allegations of bribing councillors to vote him into the ZIFA presidency.

Defence set the tone for delays with a request for postponement on the very first day the trial was supposed to kick off on 26 August 2020.

A series of deferments has since resulted with only a few cases being at the instigation of the State.

In May presiding magistrate Bianca Makwande expressed her impatience after Kamambo’s defence team asked for a two-week postponement saying they needed to first get record of proceedings to that date before the trial could continue.

“The record of proceedings speaks to the proceedings that occurred in court and Mr Gumiro was here at all times and he heard the evidence that was being led from the witnesses and it’s the issue of the exact words and, maybe, the exhibits that he wants to check.

“We can’t postpone for over two weeks because he is an officer of the court and he was there. He knows the evidence that was led and if he needs the nitty gritties, which are contained in the docket, it doesn’t require two weeks,” the magistrate said.

But the defence seems determined to stick to its strategy and continues to give various reasons for postponement.

At the beginning of this month the magistrate decided to attend to Kamambo on his hospital bed and remanded him to 30 September.

Football stakeholders in the country are interested parties in the trial because the outcome will determine what happens next after

Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) suspended ZIFA citing government interference in the operations of the national football federation.

This came after the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) suspended the Kamambo led board for various allegations including sexual harassment of female officials, misappropriation of funds and generally poor administration.

SRC recently lifted suspension of the ZIFA board after an extraordinary general congress which appointed vice president Hon. Gift Banda as interim president and reinstated some of the board members.

ZIFA has been instructed to communicate the development to FIFA but no one expects the world body to lift its sanctions as it has repeatedly stated that only the reinstatement of Kamambo will suffice.

The FIFA suspension means that Zimbabwe cannot take part in any international matches thus it is prejudicing the whole football fraternity.

Most affected are the locally based players that earn good money from turning out for the national teams. Such matches also place them in the eyes of international talent scouting agents, thereby greatly enhancing their chances of being picked to try out for the big teams where they can earn fortunes.

The outcome of Kamambo’s trial is therefore key for the nation to move forward.

If convicted of getting into office illegally, he automatically forfeits legitimate claim to the ZIFA presidency. If Kamambo is found innocent, SRC will have to reinstate him.