The Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) elections will proceed as scheduled this Saturday after the High Court dismissed cleric, Walter Magaya’s appeal to stop the elections for lack of merit.
Magaya was
challenging his disqualification from the ZIFA presidential elections scheduled
for this Saturday, but his bid hit a brick wall at the High Court.
High Court
judge Justice Tawanda Chitapi ruled that Magaya failed to produce any evidence
showing that the education certificates he submitted were either equivalent or
better than the minimum requirement of Five Ordinary Level passes.
“l accept that
the minimum was a pass with 5 O’ Levels. A requirement to have 5 O’ Levels must
be met. Just for the avoidance of doubt, if one relies on a diploma, the issue
is not that a diploma is higher than the O’ Level, the applicant would be
required to produce an O’ Level certificate even if he holds a PhD,” Justice
Chitapi said in his ruling.
“In the present
matter, the applicant has been coy in disclosing further information regarding
his qualifications to correct the committee’sdecision. The challenge by the
applicant cannot succeed.”
The High Court
also ruled that Magaya should have produced an ordinary-level certificate in
his affidavit, which was going to be easy for the court to correct the anomaly.
The latest High
Court judgment comes after another aspirant, Temba Mliswa, withdrew his court
challenge against his disqualification from the elections.
Other
disqualified candidates are former Warriors captain, Benjamin Mwaruwari and
administrator Gift Banda whose cases are before the Court of Arbitration for
Sport.
This Thursday’s
High Court ruling paves the way for the ZIFA elections to proceed on Saturday
with six candidates vying for the presidency of the football mother body.
Businessman
Nqobile Magwizi will be up against former PSL Chairperson Twine Phiri, United
Kingdom-based football administrator, Marshall Gore, former ZIFA board member
Philemon Machana, Northern Region Division One league Chairperson Martin Kweza
and former Dynamos forward Makwinje Phiri.
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