WILL REUBEN KAMANGA BETRAY ANDREW KAMANGA’S VISION?
By Darious Kapembwa
SO the National Sports of Zambia boss Sombwa Musunsa announced last week that FAZ general secretary Reuben Kamanga will be in-charge of the business until elections are held on March 29. Musunsa says Andrew Kamanga’s tenure ended on February 28 and anything that is done beyond that date is null and void.
How this has become an issue today after being dealt with last December is worrying but not surprising. It is not difficult for any right-thinking person who has followed developments leading up to this decision to guess what this is about.
In the first place, the FAZ electoral roadmap was highly publicized leading up to FIFA approving it. Basically, FIFA okayed the process because they know that no rules were being broken.
The NSCZ was availed with this roadmap somewhere in December and they saw no need to raise alarm then.
But hey! This is easy to process by everyone who has been following these events, from Kamanga being arrested by the drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) back last year, to the DEC unjustifiably ceasing his passport, to summoning Brian Msidi…to every shenanigan that we have witnessed and still continue witnessing ahead of this election
No doubt the idea in this particular case seems like it’s to stop Andrew Kamanga from opening provincial conferences in his capacity as FAZ president. The provincial elections take centre-stage starting next week.
Musunsa authored a very enticing piece, very good to the ears of those that innocently don’t understand the agenda and indeed those behind it, where it stated “FAZ admitted to making errors” in their letter to him but he did not highlight those errors.
BUT WHAT IS SHOCKING IS THE SILENCE OF THE AUTHOR OF THE PURPORTED ADMISSION OF ERRORS IN THE FAZ LETTER, REUBEN KAMANGA.
As head of the FAZ secretariat, Kamanga needed to challenge those allegations, it doesn’t sit well to refute such allegations in silence. If the FAZ letter that is supposedly signed by him as CEO didn’t admit to any wrong doing as Musunsa puts it, why is it difficult to say “no bwana you are lying, we didn’t admit to any wrongdoing, in fact we sent you the FIFA and stakeholders approved roadmap back last year.”
And if there are errors that he admitted to in that letter to Musunsa’s NSCZ, let him say so just so that we stop speculating.
Reuben has nothing to fear here, because he was employed by the FAZ constitution, he was not employed by NSCZ and therefore he cannot be fired by them (NSCZ).
In fact, the moment NSCZ announced that Reuben will assume Andrew Kamanga’s role until elections, he should have declined that and threw it back to Musunsa.
Let him leave NSCZ to conduct provincial elections themselves because if he goes ahead to see off provincial elections whose AGMs are supposed to be opened by the FA president, he would be legitimising a third-party coup at Football House.
Reuben should decline that proposal if he is loyal to his employers and believes in the rule of law and not that of men.
He should leave the process to those that have the appetite to hijack it to do so, just so, to let the world of football see that in Zambia FAZ elections were being conducted by those who had no right to do so.
He should act like his predecessor Adrian Kashala who overcame similar offers and enticements, some of them actually bigger than what we are witnessing today.
He fought them like a warrior in defense of his territory. He was ahead of their manoeuvre, he read their every move. They got frustrated and fired him from his police job out of frustration when he turned down an ill-fated transfer meant to take him away from Football House so that they could have a field day.
He defended the constitution and processes, they enticed him with nice promises just like they are doing to Reuben today, but he read the danger and chose to bite the bullet.
Who doesn’t remember Kashala’s final presser in Livingstone on the eve of the 2021 elections, when again the government then attempted to stop the elections having failed in all their usual overtures of police, DEC, ACC, State House etc like we are seeing today.
He (Kashala) directly addressed the then head of state remarking: “We are tired of being treated like second-class citizens. We all have rights in this country and these elections are going ahead whether one likes it or not, we are tired of being…”
Clearly Reuben’s silence on this score is quite deafening. He must do the right things, things that late George Kasengele did for Kalusha and the institution of FAZ when RB and sons wanted a hostile takeover, things that Kashala did to repel the PF’s planned hostile takeover. Things that uncle Fidelis Banda did during the Teddy Mulonga error.
All of them did one thing in common, defending the institution of FAZ and its rules and procedures with everything in their blood. But if Reuben accepts to proceed as Musunsa wishes, it would be betrayal of his own work, he would be legitimising third-party interference in a very clear and smooth process that is supposed to be independent.
To the councilors, don’t lose sight of the fact that every time we have such acrimony towards FAZ elections, then some outsider with delegated authority has their candidate, and they are always exposed, and such candidates have always lost anyway.
If a candidate is shoved down your throats by hook or crook, they will not be unanswerable to you, they’ll be answerable to those that installed them on the throne.
Be wise, don’t be fooled, stand and speak football language, like you have always done. Individuals should not be the campaign message; football must be the message. What’s wrong in allowing the process to run its course? Why should people be changing goal posts and rules in the middle of the game?
This pattern is now nauseating… Football elections shouldn’t be this ugly and why targeting one person? What kind of hatred is this?
Otherwise Reuben should reject that carrot being dangled, it’s a death trap.
We are watching closely until full time.
The Magnet