Corporate governance loopholes

THE current boardroom activities at the country’s national football association — Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) attest to that.

Early this month stakeholders woke up to news that ZIFA had liquidated and had been replaced by the National Football Association of Zimbabwe (NFAZ).

While the current NFAZ president Phillip Chiyangwa and his board may regard this as a successful dissolution of ZIFA and quick fix to the Zimbabwe football problems, there are glaring corporate governance and public relations (PR) loopholes.

Eric Mayne (2007) regards corporate governance as a framework of rules, relationships, systems and processes within and by which authority is exercised and controlled in corporations which encompasses mechanisms of accountability and transparency.

PR, therefore, becomes critical as it is the mutual mediator in the relations of an organisation and its various publics and stakeholders.

In dissolving an entity, there are corporate governance and PR principles that should be observed.

One critical aspect when dissolving an entity is to value the laying of solid foundations of management and oversight.

And as things stand NFAZ has no solid foundation of management and oversight. This solid foundation comes with the creation of a corporate identity crest, full communication and education of the new corporate endeavour, as well as proper and eligible processes of transformation.

Three weeks after emerge of NFAZ, it has no identity. Its corporate identity crest is still ZIFA.

This is shown by the ZIFA crest on all NFAZ properties from the ZIFA house in Livingstone Avenue to merchandise and playing material like football kits.

Right after transforming to NFAZ two days later the national football team (the Warriors) were clad in ZIFA kits for the Malawi game and a week later for the COSAFA games in Namibia.

No PR work was done to form the new crest for NFAZ, to inform and educate the football fraternity and the general public, and no proper and eligible processes were followed.

This is why the Life Long Footballers’ Trust of Zimbabwe (LFTZ), fronted by Francis Zimunya, is questioning the legality of the process that resulted in the formation of NFAZ.

LFTZ queries the constitution used during the process and questions the legality of the quorum too.

If Old Mutual did a lot of communication and education just for changing its CABS emblem or logo, then the people at ZIFA should have done a lot as they looked to discard ZIFA and bring on board NFAZ. It is clear corporate governance and PR principles were overlooked.

Corporate governance recommends that organisations structure their boards to add value. While the new ZIFA presidency had worked on instituting a working board, the hastily formed NFAZ leaves a lot to be desired.

ZIFA’s board was elected from provincial stations right up to the national level, but the NFAZ board seems to have been rubber stamped.

The football fraternity have no idea of the electoral processes followed to the effect of NFAZ, they have no idea of the vision, goals and objectives of NFAZ and they have no idea of corporate football dynamism that NFAZ has in store for the Zimbabwean game.

In fact, the football fraternity have no idea at all of how NFAZ will add value to the Zimbabwean game except that the new association is warming to current ZIFA success of the national teams.

What is clear is that NFAZ President Chiyangwa and his team abandoned the PR principles on informing, educating, researching, analysing and scanning the situation to ensure NFAZ adds value to our football.

Corporate governance and PR principles promote ethical and responsible decision-making for the corporate world.

They are premised on respect, trust, honesty, transparency, accountability and altruism. NFAZ’s ethical and responsible pivot point is FIFA endorsement only and all other entities are not important. In as much as NFAZ convinced all and sundry that FIFA has endorsed it, that does not quash ethical and responsible demands in its formation.

It is folly for NFAZ president to disown ZIFA publics such as creditors, partners and employees because he is in control of football in Zimbabwe.

In our native shona language we say “Natsa kwawabva nokuti kwaunoenda husiku” which literally means you should do well where you are coming from because you do not know what you will find where you are going.

And this has not been the case with NFAZ. It is being irresponsible for NFAZ to snub CBZ, Pandhari lodges and Led tours, among other creditors today because ZIFA owes them large sums of money. NFAZ will need these corporate players in future and there is no doubt about it.

Ethical and responsible considerations were critical in forming NFAZ because the new entity still needs the respect, trust, honesty and altruism of everyone involved with the Zimbabwean game including even the discarded ZIFA partners, creditors, employees and others.

For Mr Chiyangwa to boast that “ZIFA debt not my problem” and to publicly abandon its workers is wrong.

NFAZ is a baby born out of ethical immaturity and its formation does not in any way promote ethical and responsible behaviour in leading organisations.

There is a saying that “man lives on fellowship”, meaning that a man needs other people to live in this world.

It is the same with organisations, they can never be islands and sustain themselves no matter how visionary their visions and leaders are.

In the same vein corporate governance and PR calls for respect of shareholders and investors for an organisation to be successful.

NFAZ’s formation never acknowledged the shareholders, stakeholders and major partners of ZIFA except for their benefactor Wicknel Chivhayo.

These publics were never made to appreciate the vision behind NFAZ and yet all along they have recorded their own success with ZIFA. It seems NFAZ was just imposed on all football stakeholders without due respect.

While NFAZ feasts on the success of the country’s football national teams — the Warriors and Mighty Warriors — without looking itself in the eye; a self-introspection clearly shows corporate governance and PR loopholes.

It is in this respect that the corporate world should always behave ethically and responsibly in business and society, respectively, to ensure a cherished image and reputation.

This article was prepared by the Zimbabwe Institute of Public Relations. For feedback, comments and inquiries on the work of ZIPR, please email zipr@mweb. co.zw