THREE former ZIFA secretariat employees — Xolisani Gwesela, Wellington Mpandare and Wilson Mutekede — are reportedly headed for a showdown with the FIFA-appointed Normalisation Committee after refusing to be elbowed out “without due compensation”.
The trio were notified early last month of the decision to dissolve their positions.
Gwesela was ZIFA’s chief operations officer, while Mutekede and Mpandare were technical director and national teams’ general manager, respectively.
Lawyers representing the three told The Sunday Mail Sport yesterday that they were concerned that ZIFA “are trying to bully and intimidate the workers”.
One of the lawyers, Edwell Maposa, said although Gwesela, Mpandare and Mutekede were amenable to negotiations, they were worried about lack of clarity on who between ZIFA and FIFA will be responsible for their exit packages.
The last round of negotiations between ZIFA and the former employees was on Friday.
“Negotiations are underway, though we feel that they have taken long because ZIFA would constantly need consultation with FIFA,” said Maposa.
“We needed to know who in particular wanted to discharge our clients between FIFA an ZIFA so that whoever is responsible then provides the funding.
“Initially, they (ZIFA) had indicated that they were seeking mutual termination but the approach has been that of intimidation.
“If it is FIFA who are giving directives that the workers must leave, we need directives that are lawful and which respect the labour laws of Zimbabwe.”
Normalisation Committee member and lawyer Nyasha Sanyamandwe confirmed they were seized with the termination of the trio’s contracts but declined to publicly discuss much before she has been cleared by the committee.
However, last month, she warned about the potential of the matter degenerating into a labour dispute. Sunday Mail
