Why is Cuthbert Dube hanging on?

AS pressure mounts from almost all angles, there are some sectors that have formed an unholy alliance with the embattled ZIFA president and his under-fire chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze.

It's surprising that where everyone else sees disaster and a dead-end, others are seeing a bright future and Nirvana in sight.

The fact that Cuthbert Dube has failed to run Zimbabwe football is there for everyone to see.

The man is simply clueless and if he was not stubborn he would have left honourably a long time ago.

Dube's huge challenge is his perceived success in his previous mandates that made him pompous and complacent.

What he thought would be an easy job has turned out to be his major challenge and, unfortunately, a huge fall from grace.

Now because of a big ego and utter selfishness, he is refusing to give up and let others take over.

Five years of regression is clear testimony that Dube has found ZIFA too high a mountain to climb.

Failure is not terminal if lessons are learnt and mistakes rectified.

What baffles one's mind is what does Dube stand to gain by remaining in power at 53 Livingstone House.

Clearly, he doesn't care whether our football progresses or regresses.

He is not worried about the state of affairs at ZIFA.

If he was concerned, he wouldn't have surrendered all the powers to Mashingaidze. If he really cared, he would have heeded the many calls that were made by past ZIFA employees who called Mashingaidze unprintable names.

If he had football at heart, as he claims, he would have listened to his colleagues on the ZIFA board who have been calling for action to be taken against the beleaguered ZIFA head of secretariat. He would have embraced their ideas and let them fulfil their mandates.

One school of thought says Dube is after power and prominence at ZIFA.

But that theory doesn't seem to hold water since, logically, one can only derive power and prominence from a flourishing institution.

ZIFA is nowhere near that.

It is actually the opposite, a defunct, bankrupt and smelly institution.

You derive prominence and power from running the likes of Econet, Zimplats, Delta, Mimosa and SAFA.

Not ZIFA.

Is it money?

ZIFA is broke and Dube claims to have "poured in his personal resources."

The only football authorities who can safely 'fire' Dube, the ZIFA councillors, are so compromised to an extent of being drowned into docility.

So pathetic is the situation such that the councillors celebrate every time a meeting is called up. Every time they come to Harare it's pay time.

What boggles the mind is why Dube would go to such lengths to remain in an office whose survival and success he doesn't care.

The plot, it is alleged, has sucked in some of the board members and even the SRC.

In actual fact, the caucus meeting held at Dube's residence on the eve of the SRC meeting last Saturday, in which only board members sympathetic to Dube's cause were invited, tends to support those allegations.



The agenda for the meeting last Saturday also leaves a lot to be desired.

One year down the road and SRC still wants to discuss ZIFA Strategies?

What did they discuss with this ZIFA board when it came into office?

The big question is why is the SRC handling ZIFA with kids' gloves?

So, what are they going to write in their report to the Minister?

That ZIFA has fantastic plans for the future?

And when we see the SRC leader having a lengthy meeting with Cornelius Bwanya, a ZIFA councillor who believes in Dube, we get worried.

Who is going to ask Dube the difficult questions about his failure to deliver on his promises?

Dube has been in office for five years and what's left are just three years. What can he do in three years that he failed to start in the last five years? ZIFA's issue has divided the Ministry of Sport, Arts and Culture. Minister Andrew Langa seems sympathetic to Dube.

Why, one wonders.

Some are beginning to question whether, indeed, it was SuperSport who bankrolled that trip to Brazil.

Why are Minister Langa and SRC seemingly protecting Dube?

You are made to wonder if these guys have the same shared vision as everyone else.

A shared vision of making the Warriors a football powerhouse, of making football a worthy part of ZIMASSET in terms of employment creation, of making ZIFA a reliable and trustworthy partner to go to bed with.

I think the answer lies with FIFA.

Dube has forged a strong alliance with FIFA and as Wednesday editions of The Herald and H Metro rightly pointed out, that alliance is Dube's protection and reason not to leave.

First of all, is the swiftness with which Dube tends to attend all FIFA and CAF functions and competitions when he hasn't watched a single competitive national teams' game since his ascension to ZIFA presidency?

Secondly, as Wednesday's H Metro alluded to, it's FIFA elections time and with the way FIFA elections are always tainted with underhand dealings, those directly involved tend to benefit.

Thirdly, the FIFA warning letter stinks of bias and ill-intentions.

First of all, it is addressed to the aggrieved and not the aggressor.

I am sure FIFA secretariat has had communication with the SRC and Ministry of Sports, Arts and Culture.

Why not warn them directly as was the case with Nigeria last year?

Why would FIFA go through a third part?

As the Wednesday Herald rightly picked out, FIFA's warning letter was a sourced response to ZIFA's plea for protection and scaring away investigations.

Why would ZIFA scurry for cover if they have nothing to hide?

And the H Metro rightly questioned the hastiness of the FIFA warning, "surely a whole FIFA secretary general cannot be reacting to newspaper reports on an INTENTION. What is the rush?"

The only logical answer is because of an unholy alliance that's meant to benefit individuals rather the Associations they represent.

In this case, someone gets Zimbabwe's vote and Dube gets the benefits, legitimate and otherwise, that come with attending and participating at the FIFA elections.

It's unfortunate that Dube has copied the FIFA ways and he is using them for his personal benefits and the expense of our football.

Bothwell Mahlengwe is a banker and former Premiership footballer and can be contacted, for comment, on email: bmahlengwe.cb@gmail.com