Sports / Local
'I will raise sport issues in Parly,' says Tshinga Dube
14 Jul 2013 at 02:31hrs | Views
The incoming House of Assembly promises to be a vibrant one. Among the candidates jostling for a seat is Zifa Football Trust chairman Tshinga Dube, a retired army colonel and renowned businessman who has carved out a niche for himself in football as chief benefactor for Highlanders, Matabeleland Tuskers and women's football.
The 66-year old freedom fighter is running for Makokoba, one of the most celebrated townships in the country famous for repeatedly churning out footballers who proceed to rank among the best that can ever be produced in the country.
Dube took time off his election schedule in Makokoba to chat to GOODWILL ZUNIDZA. He says he will deliver victory for President Mugabe and Zanu-PF in Makokoba and present the case for sport in Parliament. Enjoy.
GZ: Since when have you been a football man?
TD: When I was young, you know as little boys we always were very active in going to the soccer fields and participate, looking after the gates and so forth from the time I was below 10. I was a footballer myself even at school but when we were kids we could only afford tennis balls which we got from those tennis courts, you know lost balls and so forth, sometimes when you don't have it you could make a ball from clothes, from tied-up clothes and so forth.
GZ: But did you get to play the game seriously?
TD: I started at Fort Usher which is some 30 kms from Bulawayo, then I came to Mzilikazi Primary before I went to Solusi. I used to play in the school teams. At Solusi I was very active in soccer I liked soccer very much. Even in the camps we used to play soccer.
GZ: Which schools were playing football at that time in Bulawayo?
TD: At Mzilikazi we played against many of the other primary schools in town, but at Solusi there were not very many competitors except at Usher and so forth. It wasn't that much encouraged at Solusi. There was some sports but it wasn't as good as say at Tegwani. Tegwani had more sports than Solusi.
GZ: What about in Zambia?
TD: Yes, in the camps especially in the recruitment camps when we had recruits we could take time to participate in training and so forth. It was very good.
GZ: Did you remain involved in football in any way after 1980?
TD: After Independence I came back to my old club, The Highlanders. Started supporting it, by the time I came back I was already working so I supported it whichever way, financially and so forth, and I have always done so for a long time.
GZ: You say your old club? Had you supported Highlanders before?
TD: From the time I was a little boy (chuckles in reminiscence). Highlanders was always there.
GZ: Now, looking at football those days can you compare it with nowadays?
TD: What I can say to you Goodwill is that football has changed a great deal from the days of the 50s and 60s. We are now looking at the game as business.
We have moved from the days when it was just a form of entertainment, the players themselves have taken it as a means of livelihood but those days it was just a casual game where they would pass time over weekends.
But now it is a lot more serious and if you want to have a good team you have to put a lot of money into it, this is why you find that the best teams in the world are those who are best funded otherwise those who are not funded just die a natural death. So we have completely changed from those days.
Soccer is business now. That's maybe the major difference.
GZ: Is the corporate world doing any justice to football?
TD: Certainly not. I think the attitude that we have towards soccer has not changed from the old attitude we had in the 50s or even earlier years, you know, as a result we are going into international competitions with the old attitude against people who invest in soccer.
They put so much money, they do so much for their players, I always say remember the old phrase "Give nuts, you get monkeys''. If you want a good team you must pay it. The other day I was just listening to the Nigerian team travelling to America, they were all in business class and they were going to five-star hotels etc.
That's already an incentive, a good team must be must be well-kitted, well looked after, they must feel that they are respected because some of these boys go to play for bigger clubs in the world and they are looked after very well but when they come home here nobody even thinks of treating them special.
GZ: What can be done to reach the same levels?
TD: Many countries have ministries of sports but in our country we have education, sport and culture clubbed together. So there is nobody who is really looking after sports. I am not just looking at soccer but have we had many medals from the Olympics, nothing. That just testifies that our attitude towards sport is bad.
GZ: What is Zifa's share of the blame in thisl?
TD: You know after every soccer match over the weekends I listen to commentaries and some people complaining bitterly against Zifa. Well I cannot speak to defend Zifa because I do not what they have done but from my point of view I think they have a problem as well. They are not well looked after.
They are not. Sometimes if you take your troops to war without any ammunition or any weapons you are sure they will perish so why do you blame them for perishing?
GZ: Explain what you mean exactly.
TD: The whole thing is that if we have to blame Zifa lets first fund them make sure that they are funded adequately, and then if they fail then we say, look, we have provided resources for you but you have let us down, so what kind of people are you? You are useless. Then we can blame them yes.
GZ: But they got money from a home international recently and a few days later could not purchase air tickets for the next away fixture.
TD: I don't know what has happened in the past. I am told there has been some maladministration. I think some of these problems have been caused by the handling of money. I personally believe that money should not be handled from pockets. It should be in the bank, for instance if you want tickets for the team to fly to X country, let the bank pay the travel agency. Let the bank pay on vouchers for the hotels.
Whatever cash is required for the players, let it be available in kind but sometimes you find that there is this business of giving so much money to individuals. They have their temptations as well, sometimes a man will take money and say I will give it back and then it grows and grows and eventually he must find an excuse for failure to account for that money. Those things should be avoided for an institution like soccer, you see.
GZ: What have you done for Zifa since you were appointed to head the football trust?
TD: First of all, our first task was to send a team to Egypt. There was no cent, what we had to do was to look for tickets and, you see, we were in a catch-22 situation.
If we couldn't raise tickets for the team to travel it means that we were going to be disqualified from international matches for a long time to come. And we just knew we had never raised any money for a long time so we had to work very hard to talk to the travel agencies.
At least one of our members runs a travel agency, so we managed to persuade him to give us tickets. He almost lost his license because we did not have money to pay for these tickets, you know they are affiliated to IATA.
But we managed to send a team to Egypt and we managed to pay for all their other needs, like appearance fees, bonuses and so on. Though they lost but you know they almost won. They just barely lost but anyway what I want to emphasise is that they managed to go to Egypt and fulfilled their fixture and were not a great embarrassment to the country.
GZ: What other assignment have you carried out?
TD: They came back and there were other smaller trips to Malawi, to Zambia and all these trips needed some bit of money. We managed to raise bits and pieces sometimes even from our pockets because we were afraid of being ashamed of accepting a responsibility which we could not carry. But now came the Conakry one, long before that we wrote to the Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture and said give us a guarantee so that we can approach the banks.
We need a facility of at least US$1m but we are not going to use the money what we will do is that whenever there is a requirement for the tickets we can go to this bank and let it pay for the tickets and the hotels and when we raise funds we will repay the bank.
We could not get any answer at all and yet we did not ask for money at all, just a guarantee.
GZ: So how did you overcome the problem?
TD: We had to work like mad. At 5pm we only managed to convince a bank which wanted our own security to give that money to the travel agency.
So the team was supposed to travel the same day and they had to travel at 2am without any rest. Some of them had their bookings cancelled but anyway part of the team managed to get to Conakry, some of the players could not make it and remained in Senegal so this is what happened. But at least we managed to get the team going which was an achievement. But people still do not understand our involvement.
We have actually put our heads on the block for these problems. Thankfully we have achieved something for the team.
GZ: You came in a bit late for the 2014 World Cup campaign. It looks like it was doomed from the start.
TD: Doomed from the start! You see, how do you send a team to such a foreign country and they do not sleep, they do not practice? They arrived there on Saturday they were playing on Sunday.
Sleeping at the airport, leaving here at 2am. They were tired so we must really give praise to our Warriors, they are really determined to carry the flag of our country but we are letting them down. Nobody wants to admit that the Warriors are not well looked after.
GZ: Is there a way you can put this right in parliament?
TD: As I have always done I very much want to assist sport for the pride of our country and for the pride of soccer in our country. You see in the past there was an MP who contributed so much about soccer and some people thought it was funny but we can now see that such contributions are needed in parliament.
The 66-year old freedom fighter is running for Makokoba, one of the most celebrated townships in the country famous for repeatedly churning out footballers who proceed to rank among the best that can ever be produced in the country.
Dube took time off his election schedule in Makokoba to chat to GOODWILL ZUNIDZA. He says he will deliver victory for President Mugabe and Zanu-PF in Makokoba and present the case for sport in Parliament. Enjoy.
GZ: Since when have you been a football man?
TD: When I was young, you know as little boys we always were very active in going to the soccer fields and participate, looking after the gates and so forth from the time I was below 10. I was a footballer myself even at school but when we were kids we could only afford tennis balls which we got from those tennis courts, you know lost balls and so forth, sometimes when you don't have it you could make a ball from clothes, from tied-up clothes and so forth.
GZ: But did you get to play the game seriously?
TD: I started at Fort Usher which is some 30 kms from Bulawayo, then I came to Mzilikazi Primary before I went to Solusi. I used to play in the school teams. At Solusi I was very active in soccer I liked soccer very much. Even in the camps we used to play soccer.
GZ: Which schools were playing football at that time in Bulawayo?
TD: At Mzilikazi we played against many of the other primary schools in town, but at Solusi there were not very many competitors except at Usher and so forth. It wasn't that much encouraged at Solusi. There was some sports but it wasn't as good as say at Tegwani. Tegwani had more sports than Solusi.
GZ: What about in Zambia?
TD: Yes, in the camps especially in the recruitment camps when we had recruits we could take time to participate in training and so forth. It was very good.
GZ: Did you remain involved in football in any way after 1980?
TD: After Independence I came back to my old club, The Highlanders. Started supporting it, by the time I came back I was already working so I supported it whichever way, financially and so forth, and I have always done so for a long time.
GZ: You say your old club? Had you supported Highlanders before?
TD: From the time I was a little boy (chuckles in reminiscence). Highlanders was always there.
GZ: Now, looking at football those days can you compare it with nowadays?
TD: What I can say to you Goodwill is that football has changed a great deal from the days of the 50s and 60s. We are now looking at the game as business.
We have moved from the days when it was just a form of entertainment, the players themselves have taken it as a means of livelihood but those days it was just a casual game where they would pass time over weekends.
But now it is a lot more serious and if you want to have a good team you have to put a lot of money into it, this is why you find that the best teams in the world are those who are best funded otherwise those who are not funded just die a natural death. So we have completely changed from those days.
Soccer is business now. That's maybe the major difference.
GZ: Is the corporate world doing any justice to football?
TD: Certainly not. I think the attitude that we have towards soccer has not changed from the old attitude we had in the 50s or even earlier years, you know, as a result we are going into international competitions with the old attitude against people who invest in soccer.
They put so much money, they do so much for their players, I always say remember the old phrase "Give nuts, you get monkeys''. If you want a good team you must pay it. The other day I was just listening to the Nigerian team travelling to America, they were all in business class and they were going to five-star hotels etc.
That's already an incentive, a good team must be must be well-kitted, well looked after, they must feel that they are respected because some of these boys go to play for bigger clubs in the world and they are looked after very well but when they come home here nobody even thinks of treating them special.
GZ: What can be done to reach the same levels?
TD: Many countries have ministries of sports but in our country we have education, sport and culture clubbed together. So there is nobody who is really looking after sports. I am not just looking at soccer but have we had many medals from the Olympics, nothing. That just testifies that our attitude towards sport is bad.
GZ: What is Zifa's share of the blame in thisl?
TD: You know after every soccer match over the weekends I listen to commentaries and some people complaining bitterly against Zifa. Well I cannot speak to defend Zifa because I do not what they have done but from my point of view I think they have a problem as well. They are not well looked after.
They are not. Sometimes if you take your troops to war without any ammunition or any weapons you are sure they will perish so why do you blame them for perishing?
GZ: Explain what you mean exactly.
TD: The whole thing is that if we have to blame Zifa lets first fund them make sure that they are funded adequately, and then if they fail then we say, look, we have provided resources for you but you have let us down, so what kind of people are you? You are useless. Then we can blame them yes.
GZ: But they got money from a home international recently and a few days later could not purchase air tickets for the next away fixture.
TD: I don't know what has happened in the past. I am told there has been some maladministration. I think some of these problems have been caused by the handling of money. I personally believe that money should not be handled from pockets. It should be in the bank, for instance if you want tickets for the team to fly to X country, let the bank pay the travel agency. Let the bank pay on vouchers for the hotels.
Whatever cash is required for the players, let it be available in kind but sometimes you find that there is this business of giving so much money to individuals. They have their temptations as well, sometimes a man will take money and say I will give it back and then it grows and grows and eventually he must find an excuse for failure to account for that money. Those things should be avoided for an institution like soccer, you see.
GZ: What have you done for Zifa since you were appointed to head the football trust?
TD: First of all, our first task was to send a team to Egypt. There was no cent, what we had to do was to look for tickets and, you see, we were in a catch-22 situation.
If we couldn't raise tickets for the team to travel it means that we were going to be disqualified from international matches for a long time to come. And we just knew we had never raised any money for a long time so we had to work very hard to talk to the travel agencies.
At least one of our members runs a travel agency, so we managed to persuade him to give us tickets. He almost lost his license because we did not have money to pay for these tickets, you know they are affiliated to IATA.
But we managed to send a team to Egypt and we managed to pay for all their other needs, like appearance fees, bonuses and so on. Though they lost but you know they almost won. They just barely lost but anyway what I want to emphasise is that they managed to go to Egypt and fulfilled their fixture and were not a great embarrassment to the country.
GZ: What other assignment have you carried out?
TD: They came back and there were other smaller trips to Malawi, to Zambia and all these trips needed some bit of money. We managed to raise bits and pieces sometimes even from our pockets because we were afraid of being ashamed of accepting a responsibility which we could not carry. But now came the Conakry one, long before that we wrote to the Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture and said give us a guarantee so that we can approach the banks.
We need a facility of at least US$1m but we are not going to use the money what we will do is that whenever there is a requirement for the tickets we can go to this bank and let it pay for the tickets and the hotels and when we raise funds we will repay the bank.
We could not get any answer at all and yet we did not ask for money at all, just a guarantee.
GZ: So how did you overcome the problem?
TD: We had to work like mad. At 5pm we only managed to convince a bank which wanted our own security to give that money to the travel agency.
So the team was supposed to travel the same day and they had to travel at 2am without any rest. Some of them had their bookings cancelled but anyway part of the team managed to get to Conakry, some of the players could not make it and remained in Senegal so this is what happened. But at least we managed to get the team going which was an achievement. But people still do not understand our involvement.
We have actually put our heads on the block for these problems. Thankfully we have achieved something for the team.
GZ: You came in a bit late for the 2014 World Cup campaign. It looks like it was doomed from the start.
TD: Doomed from the start! You see, how do you send a team to such a foreign country and they do not sleep, they do not practice? They arrived there on Saturday they were playing on Sunday.
Sleeping at the airport, leaving here at 2am. They were tired so we must really give praise to our Warriors, they are really determined to carry the flag of our country but we are letting them down. Nobody wants to admit that the Warriors are not well looked after.
GZ: Is there a way you can put this right in parliament?
TD: As I have always done I very much want to assist sport for the pride of our country and for the pride of soccer in our country. You see in the past there was an MP who contributed so much about soccer and some people thought it was funny but we can now see that such contributions are needed in parliament.
Source - sundaymail
