Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter
HEAVILY built Bulawayo-based referee Mlindeli Ndebele was the only casualty during the Zimbabwe Referees’ fitness test held in Bulawayo and Harare on Sunday.
Ndebele will now have to wait on the sidelines for the next six weeks before undergoing a retest.
According to Zifa referees desk manager Obert Mamvura, all Fifa and Zifa panel referees from both the northern and southern regions passed except for Ndebele.
“All our referees in the topflight made it save for Mlindeli Ndebele and of course some lower league referees. Ndebele will now wait for six weeks before he is retested and if he passes, he will then be allowed to blow the whistle again, but for now he has to work on his fitness,” said Mamvura.
Ndebele was the centre man during the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League match between How Mine and ZPC Kariba at White City Stadium in the second round of league matches about 11 days ago.
He also handled one of the matches in the Bulawayo Football Festival that saw Highlanders up in arms against the match officials’ astronomic match fees demands.
Sunday’s fitness test was conducted by Morris Banda from the National University of Science and Technology, while Alfred Zindove was in charge of the northern region, which was held at the University of Zimbabwe on the same day.
“If you remember when the new Zifa executive committee came into power, it suspended all standing committees and hence there were no old faces. Sabelo Maphosa and company were part of the referees committee which was also dissolved,” said Mamvura.
Meanwhile, former international referees Tabani Mnkantjo, Cosmos Nyoni and Binga-based Dave Sibanda are reportedly some of the names being considered for the new Zimbabwe Referees Committee.