By Andrew Warshaw
March 14 – The latest match-fixing scandal to strike at the heart of African football, and Zimbabwe in particular, has taken a significant turn with the alleged involvement of former Zimbabwe FA chief executive officer Henrietta Rushwaya, who had a life ban for her role in what became known as ‘AsiaGate’ lifted only in January.
Last week, the national football association (ZIFA) provisionally suspended one of its own board members, Edzai Kasinauyo, pending further investigation after the revelation that he was part of a syndicate trying to fix the country’s two upcoming African Cup of Nations qualifiers against Swaziland.
Now it is alleged that Rushwaya, who has always denied being part of the 2012 scandal in which 13 players were banned for life and another 69 received suspensions for their part in fixing friendly internationals that Zimbabwe played in Asia, was also implicated in the latest case.
“We will bring this whole gang to book and I will inform FIFA of our findings at the end of this month,” said ZIFA president Phillip Chiyangwa “We have a solid case, no-one will escape, the perpetrators are in big trouble.”
According to documents seen by The Associated Press, ZIFA said it had “credible evidence” that “directly” implicated Kasinauyo in trying to fix Zimbabwe’s home and away games against Swaziland. But the fact that it is also being reported that the latest scam allegedly involves Rushwaya, who was previously found guilty of fixing games involving Zimbabwe’s team on tours to Asia between 2007 and 2009, will only serve to damage the credibility of African football still further – especially as it understood to have been masterminded by notorious Singaporean match-fixers Wilson Raj Perumal and Dan Tan.
Rushwaya only had her life ban lifted in January by ZIFA’s new leadership after it was never endorsed by FIFA.
Zimbabwe Sports minister Makhosini Hlongwane was quoted saying: “It is indeed disheartening to learn that this intricate web of deceit has been in existence for quite some time, and it implicates some of those people we had invested our trust in to administer the popular game of football. In this regard, I can assure the whole nation that government, in tandem with its policy of zero tolerance to corruption and unsportsmanlike conduct, will play its part in expediting the resolution of this matter. Indeed, no stone will be left unturned.”
Rushwaya does not deny her involvement but claims she was working with a British FIFA-appointed anti-corruption expert, Terry Stearns, to expose the latest scheme that has also resulted in the suspension of Zimbabwe assistant coach Nation Dube. She claims it was all part of an elaborate sting operation aimed at catching those responsible.
“This has been kept a secret for certain reasons,” she told local media. “What people don’t know is that when I was interviewed by FIFA during the Asiagate scandal, I made a commitment that if the match-fixers then tried to come back to me, I would raise a red flag and notify them to help them investigate. This is all that has been happening. I have a 36-page report which will be made public soon.”
Rushwaya claimed the match-fixers also asked her to help them infiltrate the South African league using Zimbabwean players to fix matches. Stearns confirmed that Rushwaya had informed him about her “investigation”, but he said she was not working for FIFA. “Henrietta Rushwaya sought my advice when she was approached by persons unknown wanting to talk to her about fixing,” he said in an emailed response to questions from Zimbabwe’s Standardsport.
“She made the decision to play along with the fixer who she suspected was Wilson Raj Perumal to see what information she could gather. I did not work undercover or have any involvement in any of the meetings she attended. I was not party to any discussions she was involved in, although she did keep me apprised of her progress. I have no knowledge of FIFA involvement. As far as I am aware, HR [Rushwaya] acted independently. I advised HR to keep detailed records of every contact she had and to write a detailed report of her investigation.”
Chiyangwa has angrily rejected Rushwaya’s version of events, saying she and others should have notified the relevant authorities.
Stearns’ admission that he did not know the motive behind Rushwaya’s action clearly showed that “whatever was happening was part of a match-fixing scandal and we have reason, from our interaction with our chief witness who exposed all this dirty stuff, to believe that this was just a corrupt exercise,” said Chiyangwa.
“The Terry Stearns statement is very clear that Henrietta was working with Wilson Raj Perumal since December and that we, the football authorities in Zimbabwe and South Africa, were not notified, and the security agents were not advised, confirming our fears that this was just a match-fixing exercise. Our chief witness and the documents that we have support all that.”
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