By Kalumiana Kalumiana
FAZ presidential aspirant Francis Hafwiti has described his ineligibility to stand for the top job at Football House as an alleged act of political mechanics.
On Monday, the FAZ Electoral Committee chairperson Ronald Hatoongo unveiled the successful candidates for next month’s FAZ elections, starting with the provincial polls from March 15-27 before the ultimate prize of the March 29 elective FAZ Annual General Meeting to be held at Fairmont Hotel in Livingstone.
The highlight of Monday’s announcement controversially saw only incumbent Andrew Kamanga eligible for the FAZ presidency while all eight of his challengers failed the integrity test.
All vetoed candidates have until the next five days ending on February 22 to appeal their ineligibility for the FAZ polls.
Hafwiti said in an interview with Revelation Sports that the outcome of the vetting process was a dent on football democracy in Zambia.
“Yes, I have received the message of our invalidation of nominations with a lot of sadness and grief- actually I think this is beyond being normal,” Hafwiti said. “I don’t know what could have happened for someone to mechanise issues.”
During the briefing on Monday, Hatoongo also declared Kamanga unopposed for the March 29 polls.
Hafwiti also confirmed he would file his appeal.
“Firstly, that man who was announcing has done it wrongly. You can only declare the winners at the next annual meeting on March 29. Right now you can just say these are the successful candidates but he can’t declare (the winner),” Hafwiti said. “It is a fallacy, it is very ironic because we still have to appeal and then he is declaring these people and then he will come back later to withdraw his declaration. How on Earth? So whoever guided him did not guide him well.”
Hafwiti then went on to question the intricacies of the vetting process and what qualities constitute a valid nominee.
He further alleged that the process favoured powerful elements in the system.
“Number two, how can all of us fail with clean records and him who has no clean record repeatedly orchestrated in the papers and everywhere else in common knowledge in the media go through? ” Hafwiti said.
“How I wish he (Hatoongo) could have gone deeper to indicate what had specifically gone wrong with others.
“He just mentioned you cannot be general secretary for a club registering players but can’t register yourself.”
Hafwiti said despite his current status as Southern Province executive committee chair he qualified to contest for the FAZ presidential position or any portfolio that was open.
“But there is a constitutional requirement that if you are in FAZ you are not supposed to belong to a club. Some of us resigned when we became FAZ officials because that is a requirement,” Hafwiti said. “So it was a one-sided integrity test just to eliminate everyone knowing that people have moved out on him.”
Hafwiti also alleged that Kamanga was not popular on the ground.
“He knows that even if we can put a frog as long as we put his name, that frog can win because people don’t like him anymore,” Hafwiti said.
“It is sad for Zambian football and sad for democracy in football. We need to democratize the game -let him face his issues.”
