The Sunday News
HIGHLANDERS Football Club life members yesterday resolved to fork out a minimum of $20 each a month to immediately deal with the cash flow challenges facing the club.
The measure was among a raft of resolutions arrived at yesterday’s meeting at the clubhouse and these should be implemented within the next two weeks to raise money to ensure the club stays afloat.
Yesterday’s meeting was called to find ways to stem the financial problems the club is in. The club’s board member and finance committee chairperson, Ndumiso Sibanda had sounded the alarm bells saying the club had to take a raft of measures if it is to survive going forward.
The meeting also resolved to create a committee to oversee the running of the Highlanders Clubhouse to ensure it can bring more income to the club as some members questioned why it was continually making losses when other such bars were making profits.
The club will also use the internet for fundraising and also embark on an aggressive drive to see donations from the club’s supporters and sympathisers. However, members were unanimous that there was a need to take immediate action and also show commitment or risk losing the club which is swimming in debt. The previous executive led by Themba Ndlela also once asked members to contribute monthly towards the club’s sustenance but few came forward and it will be seen whether they will come on board this time around.
Opening the meeting executive chairman, Peter Dube said declining gate receipts mainly caused by the poor economic conditions in the country has worsened the club’s financial position as they rely heavily on gate-takings to keep the team afloat. Treasurer Donald Ndebele revealed they had raked in an average of $7 263 of net income from gate-takings this season. Dube said they had hoped to be reaping more from the turnstiles but fewer people were paying to watch games despite the team’s good performance so far.
He added they were also facing difficulties servicing the debt and unfortunately more and more people were coming forward to claim their dues from the club.
Vice chairman Modern Ngwenya said they have about 300 active life members although there are 2 000 on the club’s register. Sibanda said the finance committee felt the club should adopt a new ownership structure that would see a special purpose vehicle (SPV) owned by the Highlanders family own the club. A Constitutional Review Committee reported the club’s stakeholders had rejected the option of floating shares to change ownership but the board feels the SPV is the best way to deal with the club’s financial problems.
The suggestion was, however, not discussed as members came up with other ideas and Sibanda said they would be crafting a document on how the SPV would be structured which would be circulated to members in September.
Highlanders’ longtime benefactor Tshinga Dube also attended the meeting and pledged a cow which can be slaughtered and sold as braai meat at a function at the clubhouse next week while urging the club to go on an aggressive drive to raise funds from members within the country and abroad. The meeting was attended by about 50 life members.
