Bulawayo Residents Association (BURA) has challenged the city council to expedite the appointment of a substantive Bulawayo City FC chief executive officer for the smooth running of the club.

At present, Mckenzie Moyo, a senior executive in the municipality, is the acting chief executive officer in a set up that has Jerry Sibanda, Moyo’s subordinate in council, as the chairman of the club.

“Our prayers are that Moyo will not be in that position forever. We believe they should be appointing someone substantive soon because it’s more of double dipping for Moyo to continue in that position,” said BURA chairman Winos Dube.

Sources have claimed that Moyo overrules decisions by the football committee saying he does so in the interest of council in his capacity as deputy director of housing and community services.

Dube also said calls for council to abandon the football club project were misdirected and unfortunate as the presence of many clubs in the city had seen Bulawayo’s weekend life becoming more exciting.

“As residents we are fully behind this project. This is the trend well over and why should we as Bulawayo be denied this opportunity. The more teams we have in Bulawayo, the better for the city, as it also improves its tourism life. For people to say council must abandon this noble project is really unfortunate; to us this is a huge project which has benefitted our children through employment, while businesses of whatever size have also benefitted,” said Dube.
 
Bulawayo City FC have already secured their spot in the Premiership next year by surviving relegation in their first year of top flight football.