TSHINGA Dube has resigned as chairman of Zifa Football Trust. Dube tendered his resignation to Zifa president Cuthbert Dube on February 17 and copied the letter to Sports minister Andrew Langa and his deputy Thabitha Kanengoni-Malinga.
BY WELLINGTON TONI
The Trust was launched on February 20 2013 and some of the members included Marah Hativagone, the managing director of Codchem (Pvt) Ltd, Barbra Chikosi (founder and managing director of Red Rose Hair and Beauty Salon), Bernard Gwarada (Led Travel and Tours managing director) and businessman Innocent Mavhunga.
Gwarada is now a Zifa board member.
Managing director of Conduit Investments Phillemon Machana, former Mbada Diamonds chief executive officer Patience Khumalo, Nyaradzo Funeral Services managing director and Dynamos secretary-general Webster Chikengezha and businessman Solomon Cheure completed the cast. In the letter in the possession of NewsDay, Dube, who is also the chief executive of the Zimbabwe Defence Industries (ZDI), businessman and Highlanders Football Club benefactor and life member, said it has been extremely difficult to achieve their goals.
“It is very clear to you and to all the members (of the Trust) that we were very keen to assist as Board of Trustees to reach greater heights in soccer, but were rendered unable due to various reasons. It is not time to blame each other or point fingers at each other.
“It is not time to count cat paws on each other’s face, but it is sufficient to say that it has been extremely difficult to achieve what we had aimed to do when we took up those appointments. As a result, we have made very minimum impact in the improvement of our soccer.
‘However, it remains possible that there are a lot of opportunities that can be exploited to improve our soccer. One of the ways is to take up a more serious attitude and we believe that more support from central government will be required if we are going to make any impact in our soccer in future,” Dube said.
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He then waded into the issue of lack of government support for sport in general.
“It came as relief that the government sought to establish the Ministry of Sports, Arts and Culture which gave little hope that a lot will be done under this ministry.
“But we are not unaware that this ministry was not given sufficient funding to build a strong foundation. We however believe that these are only teething problems and that in future more will be done to make it an effective ministry that will be able to push our game to greater heights.
“During our course of service, we worked very hard to establish a Zifa Village and we were able to acquire a piece of land near the international airport. Thanks to Honourable M Msipa who donated this land to us but we were unable to carry out any developments on this land.
“As a result, it remains but a bush. Other efforts to make this body a respectable one did not take off as you were apparently too busy with other pressing issues to focus on the strong foundation of this board.
“It is also well known that most of the board members were carefully selected from the corporate world to make it easier with fundraising, but I must say that there has been a lot of changes as most board members no longer sit or occupy their previous executive positions.
“I, therefore, wish to tender my resignation with immediate effect and wish to the president of Zifa, the chief executive officer and others in the administrative body for the wonderful opportunity you gave me of working with you and getting to understand the problems that our soccer is facing,” the retired soldier wrote.
