The Sunday News
Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
HIGHLANDERS supporters dotted around the globe will reportedly look after the new Bosso coach, Hendrik Pieter de Jongh who was officially unveiled on Friday.
A source privy to the arrangement told this publication that Highlanders supporters chapters outside the country asked the club leadership to look for a reputable coach to get the team out of their terrible situation they are in. Chapters that are said to be involved in the agreement to bring in the new coach are the United Kingdom, South Africa, Amahlolanyama Golf Club (South Africa), Canada and United States of America. The supporters groupings will apparently make available financial resources to look after expatriate De Jongh for the duration of his stay with Amahlolanyama.
“Highlanders supporters based outside Zimbabwe told the club to look for a coach who can get us out of this situation since Mandla Mpofu had failed to achieve that. The chapters will top up whatever is coming from the NetOne sponsorship,’’ the source said.
The information supplier further stated that the situation was not looking pretty at Bosso, with chapters making contributions to look after the club’s secretariat, including the chief executive officer Nhlanhla Dube. In 2016, Amahlolanyama Golf Club financed the purchase of a car for then Bosso coach Erol Akbay. The vehicle, a Nissan X-Trail was subsequently passed on to Akbay’s successor Madinda Ndlovu and was being used by Mpofu during his tenure as Bosso’s stand-in head of technical department.
Many people, including Bosso’s long time financial backer Tshinga Dube had questioned how Highlanders will look after Dutchman De Jongh, seeing that foreign currency will be needed for his remuneration. De Jongh signed a four-month performance-based deal with Tshilamoya with his work clearly cut out for him seeing that Highlanders are eleventh on the log, having only recorded six wins from the 23 matches they have played this season.
It is also reported that players got paid some allowances from money raised by UK-based club member Ezra Sibanda through crowd funding.
— @Mdawini_29
