Godfrey Tamirepi
Godfrey Tamirepi is a Zimbabwean football coach. He is the former coach of ZPC Kariba Football Club. In 2019, Tapera was accused of corruption in player recruitment.
Career
In 2018, Godfrey Tamirepi took over as head coach at ZPC Kariba following the departure of Sunday Chidzambwa at the end of the 2017 season. Tamirepi who was an assistant at Triangle United Football Club returned to ZPC Kariba after nearly winning the league title deputising Saul Chaminuka in 2014.[1]
In 2019, Godfrey Tamirepi was given a new contract while his assistant Mabelo Njekwa and manager Kennedy Nagoli were fired ahead of the start of the 2019 Premiership season.[2] One of the fired assistant coaches claimed to have evidence of Tamirepi's corrupt activities and was ready to testify against the duo that he was fired after he had refused to pay the bribe to keep his job. Tamirepi’s middleman, Nyambabvu, on April 26 2018 confronted the assistant coach and told him that he will be fired at the end of the 2018 season.[3]
Bribery Allegations
In 2019, Tamirepi was one of the technical team members accused of demanding kickbacks from new signings and also inflating their signing-on fees. According to a report by The Herald, the members of the technical team were demanding bribes from players amounting to about 30 percent of the total signing-on fees.
It was alleged Tamirepi has been working in cahoots with his close friend identified as Conrad Nyambabvu to facilitate the negotiations and transactions with all newly signed players. Nyambabvu, who owns a football team named Ringmer Rovers based in Mufakose, allegedly used his Steward Bank account and EcoCash number to receive money from the signed players. He would later transfer it via the account of Tamirepi’s wife’s in a bid to cover tracks.
One of the messages allegedly sent to a player by Godfrey Tamirepi's middleman on July 28 2018 indicated that they are some club executive members who were part of corrupt activities. It was alleged that Tamirepi and his middleman connived and signed Nyambabvu’s son, who was offloaded by the club in 2014, using a different surname as a way of deceiving some of the club hierarchy. He was registered as Steven Maulani.
ZPC Kariba chairperson Fadzai Chisveto confirmed to The Herald that they had instituted urgent investigations on the members of the technical team who are accused of demanding kickbacks from new signings and also inflating their signing-on fees. ZIFA also said it was carrying out investigations on allegations.[3][4]
References
- ↑ Tamirepi takes over at ZPC Kariba, Soccer24, Published: January 4, 2018, Retrieved: November 5, 2021
- ↑ Cloud Fusire, ZPC Kariba fire assistant coach, manager, The Chronicle, Published: January 23, 2019, Retrieved: November 5, 2021
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Cloud Fusire, ZPC Kariba coach in bribery storm, The Herald, Published: February 7, 2019, Retrieved: November 5, 2021
- ↑ Mehluli Sibanda, Transfer fees scam: Zifa probe coaches, Sunday News, Published: February 24, 2019, Retrieved: November 5, 2021
