Dramatic U-turn as Mliswa backs his opponent Magwizi

By Sports Reporter
Disqualified aspiring presidential candidate Themba Mliswa on Tuesday withdrew his application before the High Court in which he sought to block the January 25 ZIFA elections.
Mliswa’s appeal was set to go before Justice Tawanda Chitapi, who then ordered him to pay the costs for his action.
The former Norton legislator was challenging ZIFA for its whole electoral process which he claimed to be unconstitutional based on the fact that all those who participated in the process were not eligible except for the Normalization Committee which was appointed by FIFA.
Mliswa, through his lawyer Musindo Hungwe, admitted that his application was filed out of time, hence withdrawing the case.
Commenting on the matter, Professor Lovemore Madhuku who was representing ZIFA, said , “The matter is not urgent, the applicant did not treat the matter as urgent, he only became interested because he was nominated to be the presidential candidate.
He waited, only to be interested after his nomination.T he applicant has not been honest with the court, and the first respondent( ZIFA) was not served with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) application, this application has not given full information about that, the matter maybe thrown out, in an urgent application you ooght to be open.”
Mliswa is one of the four candidates who were barred from contesting in the coming election after failing the integrity test, the other three being Farai Jere, Benjani Mwaruwari and Walter Magaya.
He has since endorsed Nqobile Magwizi to be the next national football association president.
Magwizi is the favourite to win Saturday’s election in which he is contesting for the top post together with Martin Kweza, Philemon Machana, Makwinji Soma-Phiri, Twine Phiri and Marshall Gore