ZIFA has banned its newly elected vice-president Gift Banda from all football-related activities with immediate effect.

Banda who was voted into the office a month ago was found guilty of firing members of the Warriors’ technical team without the knowledge of the executive committee.

Assistant coaches Rahman Gumbo and Lloyd Mutasa were relieved of their duties two weeks ago, and Tonderai Ndiraya and Bongani Mafu were named as the replacements.

Here is Zifa’s statement on the issue:

The ZIFA Executive Committee hereby informs members of the football fraternity and the nation of the decision of the Executive Committee on the 16th of January 2019 to suspend/ ban Vice President Hon. Gift Banda from taking part in any football activities with immediate effect.

This is as a result of acts and/or omissions on his part which constitute serious breaches of the ZIFA constitution as well as its rules and regulations as defined by Articles 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4 under document 3, “Rules relating to misconduct & disciplinary proceeding” of the ZIFA rules and regulations.

The suspension is effective until the next ZIFA Congress where it may be varied or otherwise confirmed by the Congress. The Association may, however, institute further disciplinary proceedings before Congress to further ventilate on the very serious charges that he is facing and in accordance with its statutes.

The following constitute Honorable Banda’s alleged transgressions and misconduct:

1. Honourable Banda illegally and unilaterally without authority of the Board, unconstitutionally usurped the powers of the Executive Committee as enshrined in section 34 (k) of the ZIFA Constitution that delegate the sole responsibility of appointing National Team Coaches and other technical staff to the ZIFA Executive Committee and not individuals.

2. He illegally, unconstitutionally and against the ZIFA Rules & regulations (document 2, ‘regulations on the allocation of functions to standing committees Article 2.11”) again without authority, usurped powers of the Technical development standing committee whose role is to among other things recommend coaches, instructors and trainers to the Executive Committee thus bringing confusion, disorder and chaos to the smooth administration of our game.

3. Honorable Banda wilfully misrepresented, lied and misled the public, stakeholders and the world during his press statements that the ZIFA executive Committee made the decision to fire coaches and made new appointments fully knowing that to be untrue thus causing disaffection on the Board, its Councillors, the public, the National Team, Coaches and stakeholders. By so doing he brought our game and the Association into disrepute at a time the Association is busy cleansing itself of all ill manners and attempting to attract corporate sponsorship. His utterances were widely circulated in both mainstream and social media and attracted a backlash on the Board on a decision it never reached.

4. Through his actions of gross misconduct, he destabilized the team, lowered the morale at a time the Team is just one game away from qualifying for the next AFCON edition and in so doing that would have negatively impacted on the preparations of the team and hence its ultimate performance.

5. Honourable Banda caused a publication of falsehood that the Head Coach of the Zimbabwe Men Senior National Team Sunday Chidzambga was the architect or agreed to change his backroom staff when he knew this was entirely false as the Coach was happy to work with his team without any changes.

6. He abrogated himself the powers he does not have by appointing support staff to national teams in breach of Article 34 (a) of the ZIFA constitution.

In light of these very serious breaches, the ZIFA Executive Board has after a robust and extensive debate on the matter arrived at the decision of suspending/banning Honourable Gift Banda from all football-related activities and his current position in the Executive Committee with immediate effect.

The Board has taken this route to show the entire world that it is serious about constitutionalism and the rule book.

Further, the Board’s mandate as given to them by the esteemed assembly members is to grow our game and to adhere to the constitution.