Minister Hlongwane applauds fellow minister Mandiwanzira

SPORT and Recreation Minister Makhosini Hlongwane has applauded his Cabinet colleague Supa Mandiwanzira for playing a key role in facilitating the NetOne sponsorship package that will bankroll the Warriors' 2017 African Cup of Nations campaign.

Mandiwanzira is Information, Communication and Technology, Postal and Courier Services Minister and oversees Government-owned mobile cellular company NetOne, among other parastatals.

NetOne, that has been providing handy support for football, sometimes heeding ZIFA's last-minute calls for aid, sealed a $250 000 package for the Warrior for use in their participation at the Nations Cup finals, which will run in Gabon from January 14 to February 5.

NetOne's timely boost will also help ZIFA avert the kind of problems such as bonus rows, which normally affect national teams ahead of such big tournaments.

Hlongwane said Mandiwanzira had been instrumental in helping ZIFA secure the NetOne support.

"I want to first and foremost thank my colleague, Minister of ICT Supa Mandiwanzira for doing this. First it is for working with all the parastatals that are under his area of influence to support sport in Zimbabwe. This is not the first time that the minister has come along to do that and before the current ZIFA board came, we worked very closely with the parastatals under Minister Mandiwanzira to make sure that the national team gets support, so I must really appreciate him most profoundly for that," Hlongwane said.

The acting chairperson Chingoka said they have unveiled the funds as they have done before to ZIFA and the $250 000 package is exclusively for the Warriors AFCON excursion.

He congratulated the ZIFA president Philip Chiyangwa for clinching the COSAFA presidency in South Africa last weekend.

"In the past few years, NetOne has come on board to support football. Last year in August, the Mighty Warriors were on the verge of failing to fulfil an Olympic qualifying game against Cameroon and as NetOne, we came to the rescue and they qualified for the Olympics.

"In September, the Warriors almost failed to fulfil the Africa Cup of Nations qualifier and we chipped in with $100 000 and as we go to Gabon, we are happy to have played our part. I am pleased to announce NetOne, One Fusion $250 000 sponsorship to the team," said Chingoka.

Chiyangwa also assured Warriors coach Callisto Pasuwa, who was also present at the ceremony in the company of his players that when they report for camp, their allowances would be sorted since the money has already been availed.

The ZIFA boss also waded into the national team selection and backed the selection of his coach, who announced at the weekend the 31-member squad, which is expected to go into camp early next week to begin preparations for Gabon.

There has been a lot of debate around the selection, especially on the social media platforms and the ZIFA president jokingly said he also interferes with the selection but always listens to the coach when he explains to him how he would have come up with his squads.

"These players who are in the squad are the same players who qualified the team. "If he puts in new ones today because they have done well in a particular game and then they lose, the same people will start complaining why he changed the team that has been winning all along.

"There are many more qualifiers and tournaments that will come, so those in top form today will get their chance to play for the national team," said Chiyangwa.