The Sunday News
Lovemore Moyo
I WAS so happy to see Madinda Ndlovu back home after his sudden illness in Botswana. We pray and hope that Madinda recovers and we still need him to carry on and pass his knowledge of football to our youth. He was brave enough to dissolve ageing players at Highlanders and introduce his three-year-plan but did not finish it due to the team not winning but playing good football.
Bosso is known for its youth team policy which provided about eight players to the dream team namely Willard Khumalo (late), Adam Ndlovu (late), Benjamin Nkonjera (late), Madinda Ndlovu and Rahman Gumbo and Mercedes Sibanda (late).
Madinda’s project is now bearing fruit and Highlanders has won four matches. I wish the Almighty to heal Madinda for Highlanders, his family, Zimbabwe and thousands of supporters who throng Barbourfields to cheer the black and white machine. I hope he will recover and return to Botswana to impart his knowledge of the beautiful game which unites people of all races across the globe.
I vividly remember Madinda during the 1984 Chibuku final at Rufaro Stadium when he and the late great Highlanders midfielder Willard “Nduna’’ Khumalo scored the goals that won the trophy and we took it across the Shangani. We sat at the Vietnam stand and sang the song Highlanders eka Matshobana and the Dynamos fans would just wonder and stare at us. A fantastic goal by Madinda was wrongly disallowed after he had dribbled the entire Dynamos defence and left them for dead. That was Khathazile for you — a great servant of the game and a Highlanders legend. Siyinqaba.
