Journalist Stanley Gama, who is a former editor of the Daily News, says SRC chairperson Gerald Mlotshwa and some board members are to blame for the suspension of Zimbabwe from international football by FIFA over a year ago.
Zimbabwe was suspended by FIFA in February last year for third-party interference, after the SRC suspended the ZIFA executive, led by Felton Kamambo, for a number of allegations, among them, failure to account for public funds and sexual harassment of female referees.
On Monday, 10 July, FIFA lifted the suspension on Zimbabwe and appointed a normalisation committee.
Gama said Mlotshwa failed to learn from his past mistake when SRC was forced to reinstate the Zimbabwe Cricket Board after the country was banned by the International Cricket Council. Said Gama:
The Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) led by [President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s] son-in-law Gerald Mlotshwa and the likes of [Karen Mutasa], wife to businessman Shingi Mutasa is to blame for Zimbabwe’s long isolation from football because of their shambolic and unwise decision to suspend the ZIFA Board.
Admittedly, the Felton Kamambo board was the worst in living memory, but for SRC to take the foolish decision to suspend them was obviously going to attract serious action from FIFA who don’t take kindly to political interference in football. SRC is a government arm…
The truth is the SRC is made up of politically connected and well-up people who follow elitist sports like polo and who do not understand football at all.
They don’t understand the pain of a township boy/girl missing out on international football. Mlotshwa does not learn.
He suspended the Zimbabwe Cricket Board and the ICC suspended Zimbabwe. They were only reinstated after the SRC lifted the suspension.
The SRC suspended the ZC board in June 2019 over allegations of electoral malpractices and financial misappropriation in a move that was deemed as “government interference” by the ICC.
On 24 July, ICC wrote to SRC directing them to “unconditionally” reinstate the ousted board or risk termination of their membership.
The SRC reversed its decision after two Zimbabwean senior sides at the T20 World Cup qualifiers had already been replaced by Namibia and Nigeria.
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