Zimbabwe Football Association’s (Zifa) Human Resources (HR) practices have been put into question as the association continues to battle against a ballooning debt that now stands at $6 million.
On Friday, Zifa president Cuthbert Dube was visited by the Deputy Sherriff as they wanted to attach property at his Old Alexandria Park home.
The court bailiffs were wielding a writ of execution after the association failed to pay Pandhari Lodge the sum of $281 985.
Earlier this year, Zifa’s property was auctioned off to pay an outstanding debt to former communications officer Nicky Dhlamini-Moyo, who was sacked under unclear circumstances back in 2012.
Initial the Labour Court had granted Dhlamini-Moyo an award of $10 000 but the Zifa secretariat did not act on the instruction.
This resulted in the former communications officer’s award rise to almost $100 000 in interests.
Another pressing HR matter at the hands of the association is the money owed to former Warriors coach Norman Mapeza, who was suspended in March 2012 for his involvement in the Asiagate match-fixing scandal.
Although there was not enough evidence to warrant Mapeza’s suspension, Zifa went ahead and appointed Rahman Gumbo while the former still had a running contract with them.
The Labour Court ruled in favour of the former Zimbabwe captain and Zifa now owe him an approximately $245 000 in salary and benefits.
Former Zifa employees Harriet Samukange (personal assistant to chief executive officer), Tafirenyika Chitsungo (Accounts officer), Christopher Emmanuel (Admin officer) and Munyaradzi Siwatsi (finance and administration manager), who all voluntarily retired in August 2011 took the association to the Labour Court where they also granted an award of $100 000.
Former Warriors coach Tom Saintfiet, who was deported for not having a work permit, is also still owed an excess of $150 000.
Another former Warriors coach Charles Mhlauri is owed $18 000 after he gave the association a ‘loan’.
Volunteers who helped during the 2011 Cosafa Women’s Championships hosted by Zimbabwe are still owed $180 000 in unpaid allowances.
The association also lost its case against former director of administration, Lazarus Mhurushomana and was ordered to pay him $35 000 by the Labour Court.
There are many other former Zifa employees who were shown the exit door from the association who have all won their cases at the Labour Court.
Zifa also owes its employees as sum of $260 000 in unpaid salaries dating back to many months from last year.
The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) is also owed $160 000 in unpaid Pay As You Earn taxes collected from the Zifa employees.
All these labour related cases contribute a chunk of the $6 million debt that is threatening to grind Zifa to a halt.
Labour lawyer Rodgers Matsikidze of Matsikidze and Mucheche Law Chambers said the recruitment policy at Zifa was the major stumbling block.
“I think there are a number of issues at play at Zifa. In relation to coaches, if you employ a coach you need to know whether that person s suitable for the job,” Matsikidze told the Daily News on Sunday.
“It does not make sense to employ a coach and then two months later you are firing that person. What it means is that something is wrong with your recruitment policy. Such a recruitment policy is poor.
“If you look at the other employees who are not necessary coaches you need proper advice on how long you are engaging such people.
“At an organisation such like Zifa you need to put the supporting staff on contract-based terms. Our Zimbabwean law allows employing people on one-year contracts and so forth what is not allowed is the casualisation of staff whereby you give people on one-month roving contracts.”
The Harare lawyer also criticised the way Zifa handle their internal disciplinary hearing which has resulted in a high number of cases they have lost at the Labour Court.
“When it comes to the number of cases they have lost at the Labour Court it just shows that there is poor human resources at Zifa,” he said.
“I doubt if they have a person who is responsible for Human Resources and if they have such a person they should be fired like yesterday.
“This whole thing goes back to the management which in this effect is the Chief executive of the organisation. He’s responsible to the day-to-day running of the organisation but is sleeping on duty when such issues are arising.
“This is what you get when you have a malfunctioning board because there is no one to put in place policies and make sure that these policies are being implemented.” -Daily News