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Zanu PF's protection of Rushwaya on Asiagate scandal shameful
Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC)
March
16, 2012
The MDC is concerned
by Johannes Tomana, the Attorney General's failure in properly
prosecuting Henrietta Rushwaya, the former Zimbabwe Football Association
(Zifa), Chief Executive the Zimbabwe's chief architect, in
the shameful football scandal that has become known as 'Asiagate'.
During her reign
as the Zifa CEO, Rushwaya shamelessly masterminded a total of 15
games without the authority from the association's board and
the Sports and Recreation Commission.
From these shady
deals, she received more than US$1 million to throw away international
matches that Zimbabwe was playing in.
Most of the
matches were against minnows like; Vietnam, Jordan and Thailand
but the Warriors lost after being paid huge sums of money.
She was arrested
on 2 February 2012 and is facing match-fixing and bribery charges.
However, in
an unprecedented move, Rushwaya this week got her passport back
after it had been deposited with the Clerk of Court as part of her
bail conditions on the false pretext that she wanted to travel to
South Africa and Dubai on business.
Earlier, Henrietta
had reportedly been put under house arrest, only for the court to
turn around and claim she was asked to stay at the given address
but it then turned out that she did not reside at the given address
and even travelled out of the country during this period, breaching
her bail conditions.
While breaching
the bail conditions, the former Zifa boss visited the Middle East
where some of the fixed matches were played. One cannot rule out
that she interfered with the witnesses - another breach of
her bail conditions.
We have therefore
no doubt that Rushwaya is being protected by some people in Zanu
PF where she is known as the "Iron Lady" at the expense
of football and the country which were the losers because of her
corruption.
As a Party,
the MDC is wondering why Tomana is allowing such blatant disregard
of the country's laws to happen.
The MDC is concerned
that Asiagate scandal has seriously affected the performance of
the senior men's national football team, the Warriors and
put the country image into serious disrepute.
Investigations
by Zifa, which the MDC fully supports, led to the suspension of
100 players who were implicated in the scam.
The players
remain suspended until they are cleared by the Ethics Committee
led by retired Supreme Court Judge, Justice Ahmed Ebrahim.
As the MDC,
we have lost confidence on how Tomana and the Attorney General's
Office selectively apply their prosecution with Zanu PF members
being immune to prosecution.
A total of 29
MDC members are currently languishing in remand prison on false
charges of murder and public violence.
The People's
Party of Excellence does not condone any form of corruption and
we are concerned by the continued disregard and selective application
of the country laws by Tomana in order to protect corrupt Zanu PF
politicians.
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