New Zimbabwe
20 October 2012
SPORTS Minister David Coltart has called on Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri and Attorney General Johannes Tomana to initiate criminal proceedings against football players and administrators involved in the Asiagate scandal.
An official report said national team matches were fixed by ex-ZIFA officials along with convicted match-fixer Wilson Perumal between 2007 and 2009.
ZIFA announced on Friday that 15 players and officials – including the decorated former Zimbabwe coach Sunday Chidzambwa and ex-ZIFA CEO Henrietta Rushwaya – had been banned for life from all football activities.
Over 50 other players and officials will, in the coming weeks, learn of their punishments which will range from suspensions of six months to 10 years, say officials.
“I fully support ZIFA’s decision to serve life bans on various players and administrators responsible for what is undoubtedly the most shameful chapter of Zimbabwe’s sporting history,†Coltart.
“I trust that the Police and the Attorney General will now act quickly to investigate and prosecute those identified. If they don’t, then their offices will also be tainted by this scandal.
“I have no doubt that the football loving public expects that those responsible for criminal activity should face the full wrath of the law.â€
An independent panel chaired by retired High Court judge Ahmed Ebrahim identified systematic corruption after Perumal burrowed his way into the heart of Zimbabwean football.
Justice Ebrahim said in Rushwaya and other senior officials including ZIFA programmes officer Jonathan Musavengana and football agent Kudzai Shabba, Singapore national Perumal found willing participants in his corruption.
Players – including the former captain Method Mwanjali now of Sundowns in South Africa, former CAPS United goalkeeper Edmore Sibanda, Dynamos defender Guthrie Zhokinyi, Kaizer Chiefs defender Thomas Sweswe and Danisa Phiri – dragged their teammates along as they assumed a central role in the corruption in which they were paid to lose matches. They will never play football again, ZIFA said.
Journalists were not spared by the corruption. Robson Sharuko, editor of the country’s biggest daily newspaper – the Herald – and former Sunday Mail reporter Hope Chizuzu, who was now working for the Premier League side Monomotapa, were also banned.