FORMER legislator and sports personality, Temba Mliswa has made an appeal to the courts arguing that the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) Ethics Committee that dropped him from contesting the mother body's presidency is conflicted and presided over flawed processes.
ZIFA Ethics Committee ruled that Mliswa was ineligible because he did not submit O-level qualifications.
In a statement on his X handle this weekend, Mliswa through his attorney, Musindo Ongwe said the subcommittee that dealt with the vetting process that barred him is untenable and unsupportable in reason.
"On the basis that the disqualification criteria was that there was non-submission of O-level qualifications, yet the ZIFA statutes themselves speak of O-level qualifications or equivalent.
"Our client submitted qualifications which are clearly ranked above the O-level qualifications, that is the minimum threshold that has been set by the ZIFA statutes. So, it is illogical and quite incomprehensible that you would be disqualified for holding a higher qualification than the minimum required," said Ongwe.
"So, on the basis of that, we have, in keeping with the provisions of the ZIFA statutes, lodged our appeal with the Court for Arbitration for Sports as mandated by the ZIFA statutes. That is the first issue."
"The second issue: The ZIFA Normalization Committee has gone about normalizing ZIFA in an abnormal manner in the sense that as a precursor to the electoral processes that are currently afoot, there was a constitutional amendment process, constitutional making process that was championed by the Normalization Committee and which paid the dictates of the mandate given to the Normalization Committee by FIFA was to be ratified by ZIFA at congress," Ongwe said.
Regarding the convening of a congress, Ongwe said, "The congress was convened. I say convened in court on October 18th, 2024, and there it presided over the business of ZIFA and amongst other things it resolved to adopt the draft amended ZIFA statutes which were subsequently placed before the Sports and Recreation Commission and adopted by the Sports and Recreation Commission and which is the basis upon which the current electoral process is currently being carried out."
According to him, a crisis arose.
"The congress of ZIFA can only lawfully make decisions, can only lawfully make resolutions if properly constituted. The delegates that sat on the 18th of October 2024 do not carry the mandate to carry out any football business on behalf of ZIFA.
"All the ZIFA councillors that were present and voting on the day had their terms of office expire as far back as October 2022. So, from October 2022, none of those ZIFA councillors have carried a lawful mandate to transact any ZIFA business.
"So, it follows if the persons that sat and determined and adopted the current ZIFA statute in 2024 had no mandate to do so then it follows that that whole process is marred in irregularity and if that process is marred in irregularity the fruit of a poisonous tree cannot be anything other than poison," the lawyer explained.
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He stated that what has followed pursuant to that constitution making process is marred in illegality.
"So on the basis of the unprocedural process that was carried out in the constituent making process and on the basis of the unprocedural processes that subsequently followed such as the electoral process that is currently underway, we have decided to take that matter up with our courts of law on review to determine whether or not the Constitution of ZIFA 2024 that is the ZIFA statutes 2024 on the basis of which the current electoral processes are being carried out was lawfully promulgated and lawfully brought into force. We beg to differ on that aspect."
