News / Local
SRC targets 'weeds' around Zifa president
14 Dec 2020 at 09:07hrs | Views
THE Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) has vowed to get rid of "weeds" within Zifa who are resisting efforts to bring sanity back into the football governing body.
The two associations have made headlines in recent weeks following the suspension of Zifa secretary general Joseph Mamutse by the SRC last month. The SRC said Mamutse flouted Covid-19 regulations regarding clearance for football teams travelling outside the country.
The debacle also claimed the scalp of SRC director-general Prince Mupazviriho, who is also on suspension pending investigations.
"We doubt those people, it's like growing any crop; you know you will always have weeds there. "You deal with those weeds, those weeds will always show up and they are doing that and it's a matter of time," Mlotshwa told the Daily News in a recent interview.
"Give it this week, give it next week but as and when those events occur the media will be notified accordingly. "We want to keep that rapport so that there's no misunderstanding thinking that we're just waking up and doing things left, right and centre without any thought for the consequences.
"Everything we are doing now is very well considered, it's very deliberate but most importantly it is not a knee-jerk reaction, it's not impulsive action."
The SRC boss said Mamutse's suspension was a culmination of events dating back to the Warriors participation at the Africa Cup of Nations last year in Egypt.
"We didn't just wake up and take action against the secretary-general. That process and its culmination two weeks ago, started as far back as last year's Afcon campaign where we wrote to Zifa and asked them to account for certain things, in particular the public funds that had been made available to them given the fact that they came to the government, they came to us the SRC claiming not to have any funds for the Afcon campaign," he said.
"And I think you know we stepped in and raised those funds. "But you raise those funds then the next thing you see someone hiring an aircraft, not for the players but essentially for themselves as an executive committee, for the councillors and other people as well.
"Those were the questions that we asked them, ‘but where did you get the funds, we thought you had no money'. That was not the only question there's a whole lot more ‘what has happened — the player dispute, thought this has been taken care of and someone doesn't bother to respond to you.
"I don't know how many times I spoke to the Zifa president going back to last year and he kept saying he would get back to me, which he never did. "But to his credit he and I have built up a good rapport over the last few weeks and I think generally he wants to change the way Zifa does business.
"But like the SRC, he faces resistance within some quarters within Zifa itself in terms of implementing what it is that he wants to do. "But there's a lot of dialogue, there's a lot of cooperation in the background particularly what you see happening now, it's not like Zifa doesn't know what is happening but they are fully aware and they know what we are doing because we are communicating with them."
The two associations have made headlines in recent weeks following the suspension of Zifa secretary general Joseph Mamutse by the SRC last month. The SRC said Mamutse flouted Covid-19 regulations regarding clearance for football teams travelling outside the country.
The debacle also claimed the scalp of SRC director-general Prince Mupazviriho, who is also on suspension pending investigations.
"We doubt those people, it's like growing any crop; you know you will always have weeds there. "You deal with those weeds, those weeds will always show up and they are doing that and it's a matter of time," Mlotshwa told the Daily News in a recent interview.
"Give it this week, give it next week but as and when those events occur the media will be notified accordingly. "We want to keep that rapport so that there's no misunderstanding thinking that we're just waking up and doing things left, right and centre without any thought for the consequences.
"Everything we are doing now is very well considered, it's very deliberate but most importantly it is not a knee-jerk reaction, it's not impulsive action."
"We didn't just wake up and take action against the secretary-general. That process and its culmination two weeks ago, started as far back as last year's Afcon campaign where we wrote to Zifa and asked them to account for certain things, in particular the public funds that had been made available to them given the fact that they came to the government, they came to us the SRC claiming not to have any funds for the Afcon campaign," he said.
"And I think you know we stepped in and raised those funds. "But you raise those funds then the next thing you see someone hiring an aircraft, not for the players but essentially for themselves as an executive committee, for the councillors and other people as well.
"Those were the questions that we asked them, ‘but where did you get the funds, we thought you had no money'. That was not the only question there's a whole lot more ‘what has happened — the player dispute, thought this has been taken care of and someone doesn't bother to respond to you.
"I don't know how many times I spoke to the Zifa president going back to last year and he kept saying he would get back to me, which he never did. "But to his credit he and I have built up a good rapport over the last few weeks and I think generally he wants to change the way Zifa does business.
"But like the SRC, he faces resistance within some quarters within Zifa itself in terms of implementing what it is that he wants to do. "But there's a lot of dialogue, there's a lot of cooperation in the background particularly what you see happening now, it's not like Zifa doesn't know what is happening but they are fully aware and they know what we are doing because we are communicating with them."
Source - dailynews
