Eddie Chikamhi
CHAIRMAN of the ZIFA Normalisation Committee Lincoln Mutasa says the restructuring of the association’s management was necessary to align the administration of the game in a new direction.
It has claimed the scalps of some top officials like the Technical Director Wilson Mutekede, Chief Operations Officer Xolisani Gwesela and National Teams General Manager Wellington Mpandare.
However, some pundits have criticised the rationale behind the sacking of the critical members of staff, with conspiracy theorists suggesting the Normalisation Committee has been infiltrated by some influential members of the previous board led by Felton Kamambo.
They say the trio is being targeted for defying the previous board during the dark phase when it was suspended by the Sports Commission and later on FIFA.
“There were 15 employees when we joined,” said Mutasa.
“In fact, when you go through an organisational transformation or even when you have an organisation committee you are almost like judicial managers and that means you have to come into the organisation and try and see where the wheels have come off the rails.
“This could be internally or externally or it could be a combination of both.
“So, what we did was we carried out our own internal analysis and from that internal analysis we decided we really wanted to change the mindset of the organisation.
“We also wanted to come up with a new organic organisation structure which will serve the direction that we want to take hence some of the positions fell away and in some cases we decided to bring in a new mindset.
“That’s basically what we did.”
ZIFA are currently involved in negotiations with the affected employees before they could terminate their contracts.
“We are negotiating on those packages. But it’s not a retrenchment, it’s by mutual agreement. So we are working that out.
“As you know ZIFA does not have money so clearly we will be looking to (reach favourable arrangements with the affected parties),” said Mutasa.
There have also been accusations of undue interference from outside forces, with FIFA Head of Development Programmes in Africa Solomon Mudege accused of derailing progress by micro-managing the operations of the Normalisation Committee.
“The bottom line is Solomon is a representative of FIFA and we were engaged by FIFA as a Normalisation Committee so we do communicate with him.
“We update him on what is happening, he gives us advice, he tells us ‘please talk to the Normalisation Committee in Namibia they will give you ideas on how they dealt with some situations.’
“But people want to twist things to suit their own narrative,” said Mutasa.