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Kamambo ready to work with Banda

Sport
ZIFA president Felton Kamambo insists that he does not hold any personal differences with his suspended deputy Gift Banda and is ready to work with him once he is cleared by the association’s disciplinary committee (DC).

BY FORTUNE MBELE

ZIFA president Felton Kamambo insists that he does not hold any personal differences with his suspended deputy Gift Banda and is ready to work with him once he is cleared by the association’s disciplinary committee (DC).

Banda was suspended in January, a month into his tenure, following his alleged unilateral restructuring of the Warriors’ technical team, where he had sacked assistant coaches Lloyd Mutasa and Rahman Gumbo, replacing them with Tonderai Ndiraya and Bongani Mafu in breach of the Zifa constitution.

Addressing a Zifa Southern Region annual general meeting in Bulawayo on Saturday, Kamambo said Banda’s censure was a board resolution and not his personal decision.

“I have nothing against the VP (Banda). I am prepared to work with him, as long as the disciplinary committee says he has no case to answer. I have nothing personal against him. One of my strengths is that I don’t take things personal. At one time, I was said to be a rapist, but I said let bygones be bygones. I am still prepared to work with the VP, provided the DC says he has no case. If he is found guilty, we will go by the decision of the DC and the assembly,” Kamambo said.

The Zifa president gave an account of how Banda came to be suspended following a unanimous decision by the board, saying the vice-president thought he had some of the members in his corner after they privately met former president Philip Chiyangwa.

“I had no power to reverse what had been voted for, but it was unfortunate that the VP and other four board members had a meeting before our emergency meeting, a day before ours, with the previous president (Chiyangwa). So one of the board members, who attended that meeting proposed the Banda matter to be put to vote because they thought they had the numbers.

“The suspension is not really Kamambo’s decision. It was a board decision because everyone said that the decision that was taken by the VP was wrong. One said there must be no punishment, but six of them said action must be taken against the VP.”

Mutasa and Gumbo were reinstated and Banda claims his decision to reshuffle the technical team was above board because he rubber-stamped what he had previously discussed with Kamambo.