The Sunday News
Sports Reporters
HIGHLANDERS Football Club members were presented with an opportunity to put the club on a renewal path during the elections held early this year when two young members put their names forward for consideration for executive positions. However, Innocent Batsani Ncube and Faith Silandulo Dube (both in their mid-thirties) presented themselves as candidates for the posts of general secretary and committee member respectively but they were resoundingly rejected by the electorate, who decided to maintain the status quo, that of putting faith in the “old guard’’.
Emmet Ndlovu and Wisdom Mabhena were once again given the thumbs-up as secretary general and committee member respectively.
The two had previously held posts at Highlanders with Ndlovu having been a physiotherapist and manager while Mabhena previously held his current post.
However, earlier Highlanders had appointed veteran football administrator Ndumiso Gumede as the Club’s chief executive officer.
The “Young Turks”, as young office aspirants are called in politics, have received backing from South African-based Highlanders member, Mthandazo Peter Moyo, who told a fundraising dinner organised by the club last week that the time was nigh for the club to invest in youth, both in the field of play and administration.
Moyo, who is chairman of one of South Africa’s biggest mobile telecommunications companies, Vodacom, outlined two episodes in the club’s history when conscious decisions were taken to rope in young people into the team and that brought periods of relative success.
“One of the most defining moments in the club’s history was in 1973 when we won the Chibuku Trophy and we had players like Ananias Dube, Lawrence Phiri, James Nxumalo, Tommy Masuku, Tymon Mabaleka, Edward Dzowa, Billy Sibanda and Josiah Nxumalo.
“We went on to buy Peter Zimuto, Barry Daka, Stanley Nyika, Isaac Mafaro and Majuta Mpofu hence we were crowned the Champions of Champions in 1974 and the following year we were much stronger,” said Moyo.
Again in 1983, according to Moyo, the club went through another renewal period that was painful at the beginning as the team would collect only one point in 10 games but people still thronged Barbourfields to support the team.
Moyo said it was the time when the likes of Willard Mashinkila Khumalo, Madinda Ndlovu, and Nhamo Shambira were blended with the old guard that included Mabaleka and Mpofu, a scenario that saw the club score successes. The club later recruited the likes of Peter Nkomo, Dumisani Ngulube, Mercedes “Rambo” Sibanda, Adam Ndlovu, Abraham Mbambo and Peter Ndlovu, a development that saw Bosso sustain that successful period.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying we do not need old people, as you can see the team had a steadying hand in the likes of Mabaleka but at that time we had a young chairman, Ndumiso Gumede, who was about 35 years old leading the club,” added Moyo.
The acclaimed businessman said Gumede went on to lead Bosso in one of its most prosperous periods when the club acquired most of their current properties that include the clubhouse, a house in Luveve and the club’s offices.
Moyo challenged Highlanders to go back to being a trendsetter as it had set many firsts that include the club acquiring properties as well as engaging auditors.
He questioned why hope has been lost in the youth when they were the ones
who would carry the club going forward.
Despite having a famed youth policy that has produced several players including the likes of Peter Ndlovu, Highlanders’ current youth structure is wobbly, forcing coaches to rely on players brought in from outside and with few players coming up from junior ranks.
Moyo said the biggest difference Highlanders made in the 1980s was that they had taken decisions to “invest our future in this club”.
He said they had taken a long term view and decided to build for the future after he had been roped in the club’s finance committee.
“Lack of investment and lack of development of our people is something we must put an end to. It is the youth who will carry us forward and we need to have confidence in young people. Why don’t we have confidence in them to take over leadership in our club today when the best moments came when we were led by a chairman in his thirties? Today we think young people cannot lead us.
“The country is losing its place and falling behind because we don’t have confidence in our young people but just after independence we had young cabinet ministers who were in their early twenties. We do not need to be afraid of young people. If we invest and take meaningful decisions to invest in our youth and keep on renewing it we will build something that is sustainable,” said Moyo.
He questioned whether the club had a strategy in place to engage the youth and whether they had embraced new technologies such as social media to reach out to young people adding there was also need for active participation of women in the club’s affairs.
Moyo also seemed to question current players’ commitment to the club when he alluded to yesteryear footballers who, despite problems off field during the week, would get into the pitch on Sunday and play their hearts out for Highlanders.
He said Bosso needed players with a “fabric of the team” in them adding he longed to see a team that would make him travel “miles and miles to watch”.
Moyo questioned the administration’s exploitation of the club’s brand saying they had a golf club called Amahlolanyama in South Africa that wears black and white but the club had not levied them any royalties.
“What does our brand stand for? What does it mean to the corporates? Why does Vodacom spend serious cash on teams like Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs? It’s because they have serious brand equity and I believe relative to this country Bosso is at the same level but why don’t we have the corporate world falling over each other to support Highlanders?
“Some people have argued that we do not have to be a community team but we have the likes of Barcelona, a community team that corporates are dying to support, they even have a choice of who to work with and I believe we can do the same,” he said.
“Never underestimate the power of this (Highlanders) brand, it is very powerful,” said Moyo.
Moyo is listed among the Who is Who’s in South Africa as an independent non-executive chairman of Vodacom Group Limited, and previously an independent non-executive director of Pinnacle Technology Holdings Limited, is one of the founder members and an executive director of Amabhubesi Investments Limited and he is a director of various subsidiaries of the Amabhubesi Group of companies.
