Zimbabwean politicians out of touch with global reality

News coming out of Zimbabwe that the government intends disbanding the elected football body  led by Cuthbert Dube only goes to show how the country's ruling elite have lost touch with the reality and events on the globe.

One Tabeth Kanengoni-Malinga is reported to have told the Zimbabwean Parliament that the government was fed up with the Dube-led Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) and that the football governing body must go immediately.

She is quoted as saying: "As the ministry, we are tired with this Cuthbert Dube-led Zifa which is not showing any seriousness to the cause of our sport. We are really worried about this...blah blah blah".

I honestly hope as a minister, junior as she might be the honourable member must be well informed and read.

For starters, not only will Zimbabwe be banned from international football but will only be allowed back if the same body has been reinstated unconditionally.

What it also means is that no club from the country will be allowed to compete regionally, continentally and internationally hitting back at the very players the government is purporting to be working for.

I have always said over and over again that football organisations on the continent, serve for Mzansi and a few countries in the North can survive on sponsorship; the rest need massive government cash injection to survive – ask Zambia and most West African countries.

Everyone knows the sport in Zimbabwe is a mirror of the political climate. Every sector of sport and I mean everything sport in Zimbabwe has literally gone to the dogs and the statement by the junior minister might be the final nail in the coffin.

Recently, the Zimbabwean cricket team were whitewashed by Bangladesh of all the countries that play cricket. Why didn't the minister say anything?

Rugby, which was one of the mainstays of the country, has literally ceased to exist so is hockey and other formerly thriving sporting codes. They have plainly been killed by the ongoing political climate.

Dear Minister, please stop your day-dreaming antics which are only meant to bring personal glory.

There is absolutely nothing wrong, if you can ask me that Dube has done wrong on the sporting front apart from being maligned by those with personal agendas. I don't know the gentleman from a bar of soap but I personally think he has sacrificed his personal time for the sport which has returned nothing to him or his family.

You cannot run soccer without sponsorship. The reason why not a single good player remains in the local league is purely down to what I have articulated earlier that without sponsorship, you will be literally be running a recreational team or here in Mzansi what they call a spaza shop.

Governments on the continent, including Nigeria, have been pumping millions to help the cash strapped football bodies. But even Nigeria have recently evoked the ire of Fifa by hinting at handpicking whom they wanted to run the sport. You can't do that with Fifa.

If the government make good their threat, they will only increase their low esteem and condemnation on the global world.

But did I hear someone say "who cares"? Really!

Now this is Fifa you are talking about here not some run-of-the-mill organisations.

The Zurich-based organisation is as tough as they come and any hint of what the minister threatened to do will be met with the full force of the law.

Please don't further make the country a laughing stock; you have damaged it enough for your personal aggrandisement. Zimbabwe is already derided internationally and this statement will only add to more scorn on the troubled nation.

Stop being selfish and look at the bigger picture. To me the main priority at the moment is job creation and uplifting the standard of living of the general populace which has suffered for decades under your misrule.

The truth is, people are fed up with the way you are running the country not the poor football body.

Poor Dube is just a victim of circumstances. Looking at other candidates he defeated at the polls' blueprint, to me he remains a better option.