The Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) will brave death threats and intimidation of its officers to continue with the Asiagate scandal probe till its conclusion, association president Cuthbert Dube has said.
The mother bodys chief executive officer Jonathan Mashingaidze was last week allegedly abducted by six people who threatened to eliminate him over his role in the match-fixing scandal investigations.
Two suspects, a member of the Central Intelligence Organisation, Richard Mubaiwa, and John Chari, a farmer at Shumba Farm in Banket, have been arrested in connection with the alleged kidnapping.
The duo appeared in court on Tuesday where they were charged with extortion and were not asked to plead. Their bail application continued at the Harare Magistrates Court yesterday and a ruling is expected today.
Speaking at the send-off ceremony for the Young Mighty Warriors team who left for Mozambique for a World Cup qualifier, the sharp-tongued Dube vowed that his association would not be deterred by the intimidations.
We are not going to stop the Asiagate investigations because of this past weeks events. We will not be hindered by any kidnapping or intimidation. Im also on the hit list, but I will not stop until our soccer is cleaned.
As for me personally, Im not afraid of anything. We will not stop until we get to the bottom of this thing. We are going to see the final conclusion of Asiagate, said Dube.
He said he was aware of plans by those implicated to derail the course of investigations.
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We know there are several closed-door meetings that are being held here in Harare at night. We know the people who are doing it, we have some leads.
Those who did it (Asiagate) are like robbers and we can only stop after they have been nailed down. Its very denigrating that our game, national game for that matter, was sold for money, added Dube.
Ninetynine players have been suspended by Zifa on allegations of match-fixing and have been banned from all national call-ups until they clear their names with the Justice Ahmed Ebrahim-led Zifa Independent Disciplinary Ad-Hoc Committee.
There are several meetings that have been held by Ibrahim and his team. They have another one tomorrow (today) and I must say they are doing a tremendous job in trying to get to the bottom of this, said Dube.
