Ricky Zililo Senior Sports Reporter
ZIFA employees grabbed $23,000 from gate takings realised from the Warriors’ 2017 Africa Cup of Nations win against Malawi in Harare on Sunday in a bid to get their outstanding allowances from the embattled association.
According to impeccable sources within the football mother body, the association’s finance manager Benjamin Dewa and competitions manager Winston Mabande hatched a plan to confiscate proceeds from the gate takings meant for the organisation.
The sources said after hearing that Zifa had been dissolved and replaced by the National Football Association of Zimbabwe at an extraordinary general meeting on Saturday, Mabande and Dewa decided to “pay” themselves after Sunday’s game.
“Zifa officials were left panicking after learning that Dewa and Mabande hadn’t cashed in money they collected at the stadium on behalf of the association. They thought since Zifa had been dissolved they’re going to lose their outstanding salaries and allowances so they decided to get the money from the gates after all service providers had been paid,” said the source.
“What further fuelled the duo’s act is that all the employees were told that they should reapply for their posts, and with the possibility of not being re-engaged by the new association, Mabande and Dewa took matters into their hands. That set panic buttons in the board and they spent the better part of the morning (yesterday) trying to locate Dewa and Mabande so they pay back the money they took.”
The Warriors-Malawi game had about 28,500 people paying to watch the game at the National Sports Stadium, grossing $168,000, of which the bulk of the money went to players and service providers.
The $23,000 remained after Zifa had paid national team members, who shared $63,000 while $33,000 went to the Public Works department which maintains the National Sports Stadium. $9,000 was paid to the Sports and Recreation Commission, among other service providers.
According to the sources, Zifa owes its employees up to 20 months in salary arrears and following the decision to declare the association insolvent, workers fear they will not be paid their dues.
Zifa president Philip Chiyangwa reportedly informed Zifa councillors that he couldn’t continue with an association that is heavily laden with debts, saying he had come in to advance football and not deal with debts.
Zifa is wallowing in massive debts believed to be in the region of $7 million and the move to dissolve the association is meant to assist it start on a fresh slate.
“I told them it’s either we go forward together or I leave and they voted for charting a new course for Zimbabwe with me,” Chiyangwa was quoted as saying in our sister paper the Sunday News.
Employees disappearing with money isn’t an ideal start for the envisaged new association.
Philemon Machana, the Zifa board member in charge of finance, confirmed that $23,000 was taken after Sunday’s match, but said the matter had since been resolved.
“I wouldn’t say that the money disappeared because there are records showing that they went with how much which we discovered wasn’t accounted for, but that’s being resolved as we speak. It’s common that people are tempted to hold onto money when they’re being owed, but look, people panicked when they heard that Zifa has been liquidated. The same employees you’re talking about have been collecting money on behalf of the association for some time and maybe they felt they can pay themselves pensions,” Machana said.
“What I want to state is that this incident is no sign of laxity of internal controls. It was known from the start that the $23,000 was left after clearing service providers. Please note that as a board member, it’s not my responsibility to carry the money, but that of the employees, my duty is to see that everything goes smoothly and every cent is accounted for, of which I believe we’ve done everything to plug loopholes.”