Jonathan Mashingaidze (left) and Cuthbert Dube
ZIFA president Cuthbert Dube, in a desperate bid to save his job, is likely to fire his chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze this week after the misappropriation of funds of the Warriors/Guinea Nations Cup match three weeks ago. Dube faces a revolt from councillors who want to revoke his mandate on October 3 when an extraordinary meeting is due to be held at the Zifa Village.
That meeting comes hot on the heels of the reports that almost $12,000 is unaccounted for from the Afcon match with reports that board members paid themselves $4,000 from the game. Board member Tawengwa Hara, a Bulawayo lawyer, has confirmed he was paid $400, which he claims were for his travel expenses.
An audit is being carried out by the Sports Commission at the direction of the Ministry of Sport and Recreation and the outcome was expected yesterday after which heads are expected to roll at the beleaguered national association. The ministry is now led by Makhosini Hlongwane after Andrew Langa was fired last week.
Dube has been accused of protecting Mashingaidze. The former Premier Services Medical Aid Society boss says charges against Mashingaidze should be tabulated and brought to him to take action. “I’ve heard that I protect Mashingaidze, but why should I? I’m saying it in his presence. If he’s found to have embezzled money, he’ll be fired.
“I’ve no reason to protect him and I’ve said to the board members please document incidences where Mashingaidze has done wrong so that we use that to fire him. “We can’t just fire him without a valid case against him,” Dube told a media conference in Harare on Saturday. Mashingaidze attended that media conference.
The pressure on Dube comes against a background of reports, emanating from a forensic audit of PSMAS, which show that the Harare business executive might have abused his position, as head of the organisation, to pay himself obscene allowances and related earnings.
The forensic audit appears to suggest that Dube used PSMAS funds for Zifa business and our sister paper The Sunday Mail questioned whether the Harare executive was right to keep singing his song that he put in a fortune, in personal funds, into the association.
Zifa reported gate takings of over $88,000 but then declared a loss of $12,000 amid revelations that four board members paid themselves $4,000 from the day’s gate takings at Rufaro on September 6. A donation of $20,000 from Prophet Walter Magaya was not reflected in the books while Zifa said it paid $3,000 to Herentals College for buses for both Zimbabwe and Guinea, yet the institution claims it was not paid.
A Harare businessman also offered $12,000 for the purchase of tickets for the Warriors’ foreign-based players and, according to the books, he has been reimbursed, but he claims he has not received the money. However, the Zifa income/expenditure statement released by the association last week showed that the money was paid.
A Zifa extraordinary meeting is set for October 3 at Zifa Village in Mt Hampden and the “revoking of Dube’s mandate” is top of the agenda. A supporters’ group, led by Bulawayo-based businessman Eddie Chivero and aligned to some of Dube’s strongest critics, has laid fraud charges against the national association following the Guinea match. — Sports Reporter/Agencies