Former Dynamos vice chairman Vincent Chawonza says he was fired from his role through a letter sent via WhatsApp.
Dynamos announced Chawonza’s sacking on Friday citing gross misconduct on the part of the football administrator.
However, speaking to H-Metro’s Robson Sharuko, Chawonza pleaded his innocence, arguing he had never done anything outside club protocol. He said:
On Friday I received a letter, via my WhatsApp platform, advising me that I had been relieved of my duties because I had been found wanting on several fronts.
I just want to say that I have never done anything that was outside club protocol because for someone to say protocol has been breached, there must be protocol in the first place.
There has to be something put on the table to say Vincent you breached Article A sub-section B or something like that.
Every time that I have talked to the media I had been sent to do so because I was in charge of communications, it was a mandate that I had and I think all these are just reasons to nail me and not the actual truth.
I was following my passion in trying to help my team and there were things I didn’t like and I know that it’s very expensive to be a good man and to be upright.
I never said Khama is unprofessional and anyone who has the evidence to prove that I said that must come forward and prove me otherwise.
Even though I believe that the way Khama handled himself was not professional, I never said that.
Chawonza accused unnamed club officials of backbiting, saying he was a victim of character assassination for a long time. He said:
There has been a lot of backbiting inside our executive and there have been so many people who sponsored media articles for my character assassination for a long time and you will see that it all came from my colleagues in the executive committee.
I think the demand for professionalism caused seizures among some of the executive committee members I was working with.
They were paying those behind the scenes so that I appeared as if I was someone who was causing divisions and instability so that the leadership could chuck me out.
The high demand for professionalism creates a lot of enemies because some people would be benefitting from the system and you want to stop that when they have been doing it for the past 40 years.
Culture change is very difficult.
He said his sacking had nothing to do with the alleged gross misconduct but everything to do with some individuals who won’t tolerate professionalism at the club.
Chawonza alleged that the people who forced him out were the same people who elbowed the likes of Kalisto Pasuwa and Kenny Mubaiwa out of the club. He said:
I wanted to fight and stick to my principles and I was resisting the coming back of certain members of our technical team whose names I will not mention, we had promoted them, and given them more money but they were fighting for a lower position at the club.
There were things that they were benefitting from.
There is no space for professionalism at the club, the moment you try to instil professional things you are deemed an enemy of everyone and they go to the leadership to say you are causing disharmony and everyone will fight you till you leave.
Kalisto Pasuwa won four straight league titles and he was forced out, Kenny Mubaiwa won four straight championships but was forced out.
Their firing had nothing to do with football.
Our problem is administration and once you try to bring in professionalism, the people who are benefitting from the chaos will fight to get you out of the system.
Chawonza suggested that Dynamos is in the hands of criminals who are involved in betting and match-fixing syndicates. He said:
These are the same people involved in betting and match-fixing syndicates at our club, who will even pay our players to ensure that we lose and they benefit.
I have a father/son relationship with Bernard Marriot but I’m not sure of what he was being told about me but Dynamos is my club and hopefully, in the future, time permitting, I will be back to help my club as a leader again.
I will follow the team, when I can, and cheer for it as a fan and the only difference now is that I don’t have to use my resources to help as was the case when I was on the executive committee.
More: Pindula News