The Sunday News
Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
ANNUAL General Meetings for organisations are gatherings where serious business on the institution’s future is discussed.
For a football club like Highlanders, which is owned by members, AGMs should be used to ponder over the future of the club.
Sadly, these gatherings are now turning into a big circus where nothing tangible comes out. One occurrence that has become synonymous with Highlanders AGMs is members getting ridiculed by the leadership or by other members, which is becoming worrying because that is not the business of an AGM.
Last Sunday, the Highlanders AGM lasted for just over three hours and sadly nothing of note was resolved by members to take this great institution forward.
If potential sponsors were to attend the Highlanders AGM, they would be disappointed by the behaviour of the club’s leadership and members. During last Sunday’s gathering, members spent time bickering over issues that left many just shaking their heads for most of the issues had nothing to do with the AGM.
When the opportunity came for board chairman Luke Mnkandla to present his report, he diverted from his report and instead started off by forcing executive committee chairman, Johnfat Sibanda to apologise to members over a leaked audio in which the latter could be heard discussing candidates for today’s election.
The audio circulated on Highlanders WhatsApp groups and got some members agitated as Sibanda was seen as favouring one candidate over another to land one of the two positions up for contestation today.
When he was forced to apologise to members at last Sunday’s AGM, he had this to say “I cannot comment on something that I did not officially circulate.”
In all honesty, how is the executive committee chairman being asked to respond to a leaked audio during a serious gathering such as the AGM? Only Mnkandla and those who wanted the apology know better. An AGM cannot be a platform to talk about leaked audios, it is about discussing serious business.
If Sibanda could be asked to apologise to members over a leaked audio, why was Mnkandla not also asked to say sorry for saying there were some who are in leadership positions at the club who are not meant to be there, and there are those who are not in leadership positions who are supposed to be there.
It was sad to see other members enjoying every minute of it when other members were being ridiculed, and even former office bearers looked down upon.
The question that many neutrals left asking themselves is “who is the most powerful at Highlanders now? Is that power now with one person or a few individuals who can do as they please and say what they want?”
One of the issues that came up at last Sunday’s AGM are proposed amendments to the Highlanders constitution. While members should have been informed in full what the proposed amendments are, the board never gave any details as to what those proposed amendments are.
Fair and fine, the Highlanders constitution was last amended in 2006 and now needs attention to meet Confederation of African Football Club Licensing requirements, but members cannot be left out of this process. Some suspect that the amendments are just meant to weaken the elected executive committee while strengthening the “unelected” board.
Unelected in the sense that board members are nominated or handpicked by the executive in consultation with the board and then brought to members to approve or disapprove.
For years, some Highlanders members have suggested doing away with two centres of power at the club (board and executive) but that has been ignored.
However, Highlanders members need serious introspection and always remember that they have the greatest power at the club and the leadership serves at their will.
Members must take full advantage of gatherings such as the AGM to hold all leaders to account, not in a selective manner like was seen last Sunday.
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