Mutare City councillors have called for the disbandment of Mutare City Rovers, which they say is draining the local authority’s revenue.
BY KENNETH NYANGANI
The council is failing to pay its workers and some councillors want to see the money that is being used to sponsor the football team channelled towards service delivery.
Tempers flared at a full council meeting last week in the presence of new town clerk, Joshua Maligwa over the team’s funding.
Councillors opposed to the funding of a professional team suggested that it should only be a social side.
For this year’s campaign in the Eastern Region Division One League, Rovers need a budget of not less than $200 000.
Mutare City Council owes its workers almost $8 million, as it has gone for 17 months without paying salaries.
Councillor Tarwirei Mabika said he was worried that the local authority had gone for several months without paying salaries to its workers.
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“A person with common sense cannot allow the sponsorship of the team as our workers are suffering. Football is a luxury when service delivery is poor. Last year, we did not have a single report on the gate-takings,” he said.
“Why spend about $185 000 on football while we are not paying workers?”
Others, however, felt the funding of the team should continue.
“Mutare City Rovers should not stop. Let’s continue with the team. We also need entertainment,” councillor Tsitsi Ziweya said.
Deliberation on the matter is set to continue this week at another council meeting.
Meanwhile, the club has parted ways with coach Masimba Dinyero barely three months after his appointment.
Dinyero was bizarrely dismissed over a spate of poor pre-season results, with the team management arguing that he had failed to get the team ready for the new season.
The former Harare City coach’s dismissal also follows a change in team management, with Isdore Bingura having been replaced by Kudakwashe Chisango as the side’s chairman.
Clayton Masekesa, who is the club administrator, yesterday confirmed the new development.
“We sacked our coach. Our preparations were in shambles. We lost our pre-season matches against teams playing in lower divisions,” he said.
“The players that he had brought in are also not good enough. The executive decided to sack him because we were not going anywhere. We owe the coach two months in salary arrears and we are going to pay him very soon.”
