The Sunday News
Ngqwele Dube, Sports Correspondent
WITH football action canned due to efforts to stem the Covid-19 pandemic, clubs, fans and players have taken to social media to keep themselves entertained with some coming up with a World Cup of flags while others have been digging up past football glories.
To lighten up the mood at a time fans are worried about the return of their favourite sport, Highlanders has launched a Bulawayo Kasi Battle to find out which kasi (suburb/township) has the most ardent Bosso fans. The battles have seen townships being pitted against each other with members of the public voting for their favourite suburb.
An announcement on the Highlanders Twitter page @HighlanderBosso announcing the battle reads: “We have always been curious, which Bulawayo Kasi has most loyal & staunch Highlanders FC fans.”
The polls that started on Monday have seen Mzilikazi squaring off against Mpopoma with the former taking the vote by 76,1 percent while Magwegwe edged Emakhandeni with a 54 percent and the Luveve-Pumula fight which had the highest voters so far with 1 162 votes cast saw Luveve clinching it at 54,6 percent.
Bosso striker, Prince Dube’s suburb of Emganwini was edged by Cowdray Park (52,7 percent) despite the player taking to Twitter to urge those from the suburb to cast their votes. The Nketa-Nkulumane battle was still on yesterday with fans canvassing for support as they sent the link to their friends to vote on their behalf although Nkulumane had taken a lead of 57,6 percent by 4pm.
Highlanders communications officer, Ronald Moyo said the idea is to interact with fans and continue giving them that sense of ownership and belonging during the time the game is not being played.
“The competition will go down to the finals. We value the polls and the fans’ interaction. At the end of the day we genuinely want to create a fan database which we intend to create using these digital tools,” he said.
Although some were eagerly searching for votes others were posting hilarious comments.
Commenting on the Nketa-Nkulumane battle, Ndumiso @ndue37 revealed Nketa 9 Bosso and Dynamos supporters have different drinking spots.
“There is a funny story about Nketa 9, there are two bottle stores, Jet for Bosso supporters and Runganga for DeMbare followers. When the other team wins, they go and buy booze from the opposition’s shop just to be spiteful.”
Khulumani FM presenter, Thokozani Mnkandla (@misss tee09), confessed she was confused on who to vote for between Emakhandeni and Magwegwe as she has a boyfriend in the former and relatives in the latter. She, however, ended up choosing to vote for “Makopo” as Emakhadeni is affectionately known.
Anele Phagiwa @PhagiwaAnele narrated yesteryear history when most Bosso players used to come from Mzilikazi and Makokoba.
“Mzilikazi boasts about contributing players to Highlanders. I once had a chat with Lovemore Ncube and he told me that during their days it was not an easy thing to play for Bosso. Boys from Mzilikazi, Barbourfields and Makokoba will deny you a chance to trial at Highlanders.”
Moyo said after the Bulawayo edition, they will have iThimu Yezwe Lonke edition, which will locate the team’s fans dotted across the country and in the diaspora.
