Harare East MP Terence Makupe proposed that the Zimbabwe Warriors should be detained at military barracks and made to work for the lucrative perks they received as punishment for letting the nation down. The players were reportedly paid $85 000 each. Zimbabwe was knocked out in the first round of the Africa Cup of Nations after they finished last in their group with a single point.
Said Makupe:
We expected that having paid them handsomely they should perform as per expectation. As a bitter nation, we are saying as government can we not punish these players because it was done in some other African countries that players who performed dismally despite the support were taken to army barracks and worked hard for the money.
Buhera South MP Joseph Chinotimba said the players should give back part of the money. Chinotimba said:
Where is the money? They should return it
However, Sports Minister Makhosini Hlongwane apologised for the team’s performance and stressed that it was not government policy to punish players. Hlongwane said:
As Zimbabwe, we do not have a policy of detaining our players in military barracks … As minister of sport I want to, on behalf of the sport sector, apologize to the nation for the performance that was shown by the Warriors in Gabon.
I acknowledge that the whole country, to a large extent, is a cemetery of dead emotional bodies owing to that performance which was below expectations.
More: VOAZimbabwe