BULAWAYO- ZIFA presidential hopeful Gift Banda was arrested on Thursday after allegedly forging an Ordinary Level certificate, police said.
The former ZIFA vice president and alleged beneficial owner of Bulawayo parking management company, Tendy Tree Investments, was detained at Western Commonage Police Station and will likely appear in court on Friday.
ZIFA introduced new rules for elections set for January that all candidates must have obtained at least rive passes in O’ Level exams. Banda, it is alleged, does not have the O’ Level passes.
To get his nomination papers accepted, the former Bulawayo deputy mayor and ex-Njube Lobengula MP allegedly approached a forger, one Anele Zikhali of Bulawayo, who created a fake O’ Level certificate showing that he passed seven O’ Level subjects at Mpopoma High School in 1986.
He allegedly promised the headmistress of the school that he would help her child get a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) to enable her to work in the United Kingdom. He would also pay for her travel.
The headmistress, in turn, filed Banda’s fraudulent results in the files for 1986.
There was one problem, according to national police spokesman Commissioner Paul Nyathi: the certificate said he sat ZIMSEC exams, yet in 1986 Zimbabwe only had Cambridge examinations. ZIMSEC was not established until 1996.
More than half a dozen candidates have entered the race for ZIFA president including Sakunda Holdings project manager Nqobile Magwizi, CAPS United president Farai Jere, former Premier Soccer League chairman Twine Phiri, former MP Temba Mliswa, businessman Gilbert Muponda, Yadah Stars owner Walter Magaya, UK-based businessman Marshall Gore, ex-ZIFA board member Philemon Machana and Northern Region Soccer League chairman Martin Kweza.
