Zifa presidential candidate Leslie Gwindi has called on the electoral committee to uphold professionalism when they conduct vetting this morning, as the local soccer mother body gears up for the December 5 elections.
BY HENRY MHARA
Gwindi, a former Harare City chairman and ex-Dynamos secretary-general, will be competing against businessman Philip Chiyangwa, football legend, James Takavada and former Zifa boss Trevor Carelse Juul for the presidency post.
Gwindi yesterday said the electoral committee should be thorough, tearing into his opponents, particularly Chiyangwa and Carelse, whom he said do not qualify for the elections.
“There are rules and regulations that we must follow because we are the ones who set them. That’s where credibility starts. One of the cornerstones of this particular campaign is credibility, honesty and integrity,” he said.
“We have conditions that we have set (in the constitution). For example, if a person hasn’t stayed in the country for five years or more, they don’t qualify and if a person hasn’t administered the game for five years, they don’t qualify as well. So there mustn’t be an exception. We want that instituted and want the vetting committee to look into the veracity of all those applications. Trevor does not qualify because he has been away for 21 years. Phil has not administered football at the level that is required and even the time frame, he does not fit. If we don’t get our footing right at this moment, then we would be in trouble. We must be careful about the things we are doing because this is a very good opportunity to build football again. If we miss this opportunity, nobody will take us seriously.
“We must take off our hats to the councillors who have started the process of reform. They have realised their mistakes and have looked at the failures of the previous board and have called it time. We must never ever fool ourselves that councillors don’t realise that. They are an extremely commendable group that has realised the mistakes and corrected them. So we must buttress further their actions of cleaning up football and make it a credible institution called Zifa and that is the crisis that we have. There is so much talk about corporates coming to support football, but they will not come and support something that is not credible, that cannot uphold their own rules.”
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Gwindi continued his attack on Chiyangwa, who recently went ballistic when asked by a caller live on a local radio station to say what the acronyms of Fifa, Cosafa and Caf mean.
“He (Chiyangwa) doesn’t even know acronyms and he gets abusive after that. The media must probe that is this the kind of quality that we would be dealing with. This is where profoundly or unfoundedly that we hear that the media is being paid, because some of these things appear very obvious. Why are they not probing such issues and put them into the public domain? That is where my outcry is because if that whole vetting process is not done with integrity and honesty, this institution will continue to have problems because the public will judge us. We need to defend our intergrity by doing what is right. Finish!”
The vice-president position will be contested by three candidates — Elkana Dube, Omega Sibanda and Lincoln Mutasa.
For the other three board member posts, Wilfred Mukuna, Joseph Musariri, Lewis Uriri, Piraishe Mabhena, Musa Mandaza, Beaele Gwasira, Jackson Munyaka, Philemon Muchana, Edzai Kasinauyo and Shelton Kamambo filed their papers.
The other two posts in the seven member board are reserved for the chairperson of women’s football and the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League chairperson.
