STANDING in next year’s Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) election slated for March 29 will definitely separate the corn from chaff with the nomination fees pegged at $10 000 with the national association saying the aim is to “separate chancers from people who want to serve football”.
THANDIWE MOYO,OWN CORRESPONDENT
“Running the association is expensive and we want to come up with people who are dedicated. The nomination fees do not come cheap, this will separate chancers from people who want to serve football.
“We believe that leadership is not about populism. We do not want our leadership to think that being in football is a past-time, but it is meant to unlock the value of the sport. The electorate will then chose a suitable candidate whether they borrowed the money to stand or not,” said Zifa chief executive officer Jonathan Mashingaidze on the sidelines of the meet-the-people tour in Gwanda on Saturday.
Area nomination fees have been pegged at $100, with the provincial candidate having to pay $1 000, $1 500 for the regional candidate, while the Zimbabwe women’s football, beach soccer and five-a-side association will cough up $2 500.
For the Premier Soccer League (PSL), the candidates will pay $5 000.
Mashingaidze said the elections would start on December 21 with the area zone polls. The nominations for the area zones were opened on November 21 and will close on December 11.
“The nominations for the provincial structures will start on December 5 and close 14 days thereafter with the regional structures nominations starting sometime in January with the elections being held in February. The national structures for the women’s football, beach soccer and five-a-side will be held the same month.
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The PSL elections will be held around the third week of February and the national election will be on 29 March,” he said.
The nomination fees could prove steep for aspiring candidates. In 2010 Zifa were ordered by the Sport and Recreation Commission to reduce the nomination fees which were pegged between $50 and $500.
An 11-member electoral committee that includes Fifa instructor Elizabeth Banda, former PSL chairman and Zifa vice-president Tendai Madzorera, retired High Court judge Kennedy Sibanda, Labour Court of Zimbabwe judge Sello Nare, legal practitioners Musekiwa Mbanje Tinofara Hove, Tichawana Nyahuma, Ralph Manganga, former Warriors and Caps United defender Charles Sibanda, Zifa honorary member Passious Masunda and Cornelius Bganya make up the team with the secretary of the committee being Mashingaidze.
In a speech read on his behalf by vice-president Ndumiso Gumede, Zifa boss Cuthbert Dube announced his candidacy.
“My first term’s tenure of office ends in March 2014 and I would like to publicly announce that I will be available to serve football for another term if the electorate deems it fit. I still have a lot of work to accomplish after having spent the past four years sanitising an institution which had been riddled with corruption and power struggles. I will be coming back to this province (Matabeleland South) early next year to present my credentials, vision and mission to you,” he said.
