HARARE - A prominent local football supporters association has called on Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) president Cuthbert Dube to resign from his post and “save what is left of his dignity”, the body’s leadership said yesterday.
The Zimbabwe National Soccer Supporters Association (ZNSSA) says it has positioned the country’s supreme sports regulatory body, the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC), to nullify the on-going Zifa countrywide elections citing several irregularities.
Dube has been at the centre of corporate storm following revelations of his staggering $230 000 monthly salary earned as Premier Services Medical Aid Society (PSMAS) chief executive officer.
The Zifa president was subsequently shown the exit door after a public outcry over his hefty package which came against the background of a $38 million PSMAS debt owed to various service providers.
Dube was also last month axed as board chairman of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) following stunning revelations of salary anomalies in which top executives were paid handsomely at the expense of lower level staff, who had gone for five months without pay.
Other forms of malpractice which have implicated Dube have also emerged at the state-run broadcaster.
Against this background, Dube, who has been at the helm of Zifa since March 2010 and is expected to seek a fesh mandate on in two months’ time, is now in the line of fire on the football front.
“We as the supporters’ body have noted with utmost disgust the way public funds have been looted by our so called leaders, people who are supposed protect our funds,” said ZNSSA president Eddie Chivero told reporters at a press briefing yesterday.
“We are asking the Zifa president to step down following concerns raised in the organisations he is leading, ZBC being one of them and PSMAS being another.
“We are calling on the SRC to nullify the election process within the next 48 hours. We are also going to appear before parliamentarians next week where we will be voicing the same concerns.
“We are also going to petition the Minister of Sport. We are going to use all means necessary. Failure of which we will approach the courts.
“If this man has been given a vote of no confidence in the various boards he leads then why should we keep him in football.”
The ZNSSA officials also demanded that Zifa produce audited accounts for their term in office.
“We want to know what Zifa officials are earning,” said Chivero.
“It’s a public office, we should know. If he could award ZBC officials big salaries, what is stopping him from doing the same at Zifa?”
“We want a probe,” interjected the association’s founding president, Eddie Nyatanga.
“Where was the money coming from that was said to be donated to the national teams? If it was poor people’s money then we want to know. It’s not fair. We don’t want dirty money in football,” added Nyatanga.