RAHMAN Gumbo made a shock return as caretaker Zimbabwe national team coach on Tuesday, stepping in for Norman Mapeza who was suspended last week over accusations of match fixing.

Either side of his spell as national team boss, Gumbo led Highlanders to back-to-back league titles before winning league titles in Botswana with Township Rollers and Telecom Wanderers in Malawi.

ZIFA announced on Tuesday that Gumbo, currently the coach of FC Platinum, would be assisted by Dynamos legend David Mandigora with Nyika Chifamba as manager.

The trio will take charge of a depleted Zimbabwe team to face Burundi in the first leg of a 2013 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier on February 29.

A decision on the match fixing charges against Mapeza, his assistant Joey Antipas and nearly 80 players is due in March. Should Mapeza be found not guilty, ZIFA bosses say he will reassume his role as national team coach.

Meanwhile, ZIFA announced that Warriors legend Peter Ndlovu will step in as caretaker Under 23 national team boss assisted by Callisto Pasuwa with Chris Chitsinde as manager.

Mapeza, Antipas and the bulk of the current national team squad were named by an internal ZIFA investigation in a multi-million dollar international betting scandal.

The coaches and players are accused of receiving payments from an Asian betting syndicate to lose friendly matches on trips to Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Oman, Jordan, Bulgaria, China, Thailand and Yemen between 2007 and 2009.

As ZIFA announced the suspensions last week, police were moving to arrest Henrietta Rushwaya, the former ZIFA CEO who was fingered as a key player in the match fixing.

Rushwaya appeared in court on Monday to answer 11 counts of concealing transactions from a principal, two counts of fraud and 15 counts of bribery involving US$1 million.