By Hope Chizuzu
The national security is under serious threat at Afcon 2021 after CAF, acting on falsehoods from the suspended de facto Zifa President, Phelimon Machana, refused to accredit all non-technical members of the Zifa delegation, The Page can reveal.
In a terse response addressed to Zifa acting CEO, Xolisani Gwesela, the Local Organising Committee of Afcon advised that they are unable to accredit all non-technical members of the Zimbabwe delegation. CAF gave no reason for the shocking decision they reached yesterday, just two days before Zimbabwe play Senegal in Bafoussam in Group B opening match.
CAF insiders revealed to The Page that the continental mother body received a letter signed by Joseph Mamutse, the suspended CEO of Zifa, saying that the Zimbabwe government has send a group of security details, spies and counter intelligence officers disguised as football officials.
The contents of the letter forced the decision to not accredit the officials such as security, catering and logistics, a covert plan to infiltrate and destabilize the team ahead of the opening match in which Zimbabwe are feared to cause an upset as underdogs.
The move would mean the team which is preparing food and managing events are unable to freely do their duties without potential compromise to finesse and ultimately the team security.
There are also fears that, Machana, who has since his suspension on November 16, wanted Zimbabwe to be chucked out of the Nations Cup, could be working in cahoots with betting syndicates, who have marked the Senegal v Zimbabwe, a high stakes match, to affect the game.
With the catering staff under threat of failing to do their job freely and safely, food poisoning is a national threat that cannot be ignored as well as potential match fixing.
Meanwhile The Warriors will have their COVID-19 tests at 1400HRS before leaving for training at 1630hrs, to be ready for the session at 1700HRS.
But there is no good news for Jordan Zemura whose lateral flow still turned a positive result and has had another test done today with results set for Monday, effectively ruling him out of the match against Senegal.
In spite of that Zemura update, captain Knowledge Musona and his boys are upbeat, raring to go. There is a clean spirit blowing in camp with everything going according to script. The focus is purely on the Senegal match with everything set.
But the suspended Zifa executive committee duo of Machana and Failton Kamambo have been trying to derail the good progress.
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