Sports minister Makhosini Hlongwane has asked Zifa to immediately reinstate sacked Warriors coach Kalisto Pasuwa, arguing that the decision to fire the popular gaffer was hasty and would disturb the team’s preparations for next month’s African Nations Championship (Chan) tournament.
BY HENRY MHARA
Zifa on Thursday brewed a shocker when announcing that they had fired Pasuwa, together with his entire technical staff, and immediately replaced him with Chicken Inn head coach Joey Antipas.
The decision to fire the fans’ favourite has drawn fire from football stakeholders and Hlongwane yesterday stepped in and asked Zifa to rescind their decision.
Hlongwane said the decision was wrong as it was ill-timed. “I learnt with shock the news of the firing of one of Zimbabwe’s most successful and illustrious technical teams headed by coach Kalisto Pasuwa. I would like to point out that coach Kalisto Pasuwa has been very successful in his career with the national team and that all differences with Zifa should be resolved amicably. I observe that the dispute between Zifa and Pasuwa is a labour dispute which must be resolved by negotiation and cajoling with a view to achieving an amicable solution to the misunderstanding,” Hlongwane said at a Press conference.
At almost the same time, Zifa acting president Omega Sibanda was addressing a Press conference of his own where he declared they would not be told what to do.
Sibanda said they sacked Pasuwa after he resisted the move by the new Zifa board to fire team manager Shariff Mussa and replace him with Wellington Mpandare.
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He said it was Zifa’s mandate to appoint the coach and his technical staff, and “not the other way round”.
Sibanda said they were also not comfortable with the situation where Pasuwa’s manager, Gibson Mahachi, was managing players in the Warriors squad, saying it violated Fifa code of ethics.
The other contentious issue was to do with allowances, with Sibanda claiming that Pasuwa was constantly shifting goalposts on figures that they wanted to be paid.
However, Hlongwane said the two parties should find each other and resolve the matter amicably.
“I don’t come from a school of thought that says if you disagree with somebody, fire them. I think you must sit down, deploy all instruments available at your disposal and make sure there is discussion especially given the character of football in Zimbabwe that it’s a national asset and it emotes feelings of happiness and it mobilises the whole country around this project called football. And, therefore, it’s a lesson to the new board that they should sit down and understand issues first before acting,” Hlongwane said.
“I further observe that appointing a new technical team with only a few days left to participate in the finals of Chan 2016 in Rwanda may derail the preparations of the Warriors since the new technical team will need time to acquaint itself with the task at hand. Pasuwa and his technical team have given their all with unmatched dedication and commitment to national duty even as they have gone for months without being paid by their employer.”
Hlongwane said he had asked Zifa president Phillip Chiyangwa, currently on leave, to “come back from his leave in order to attend to this potentially crippling and rather unnecessary dispute”.
Reports yesterday suggested that Antipas had turned down the offer in solidarity with Pasuwa. The championship-winning coach could not be reached for comment as he was said to be on holiday in Kariba.
According to Zifa, Tonderai Ndiraya and Mandla Mpofu had been listed as Antipas’s assistants with Peter Nkomo coming in as the goalkeepers’ coach and Cosmas Zulu as fitness manager.
Other reports also said Zifa announced the names before talking to Antipas and his team. When asked to explain, Sibanda said: “We just suggested names, we didn’t appoint them.”
