The Sunday News
Senior Sports Reporter
HIGHLANDERS’ chief executive officer Ndumiso Gumede has come out in support of the temperamental club technical advisor Cosmas “Tsano” Zulu’s behaviour when he comically confronted journalists interviewing Zambian goalkeeper Sitali Nyambe.
Gumede, who was not at Barbourfields Stadium when Zulu lashed out at the scribes for interviewing Nyambe as he had travelled on the Bosso trip to Grahamstown, South Africa, said Zulu was actually the supervisor of the Highlanders technical team.
The Highlanders chief of secretariat pointed out that since head coach Erol Akbay was still new in his position, Zulu was given a role of supervising the technical team until such a time when the Dutchman settled.
“I was not around when the incident took place, the man at the top is Cosmas Zulu. The journalists should have spoken to him, there is a hierarchy. Tsano is the person given the responsibility of a supervisory role, he is the one who is supposed to clear players to talk to the media. There is no problem at all, just leave us to run our affairs the best way we can,’’ said Gumede.
“Tsano has a supervisory role and familiarisation role for Erol Akbay, as time goes on he will get debriefed, that is reverting back to his role as goalkeepers coach. Once he (Akbay) is at home, in a month or two then he will take over.’’
Last Sunday’s incident occurred when assistant coach Amini Soma-Phiri, in charge of the team during the Bulawayo Football Festival, had given the scribes the go ahead to interview Nyambe only for Zulu to come all the way from the terraces to confront the newsmen ordering them to get away from the player. The incident was interpreted as a sign of deep rooted problems in the Bosso technical department.
A few days before, at the end of a social cricket match between Highlanders and Matabeleland Tuskers at Queens Sports Club, one of the two Bosso coaches (name withheld) told journalists not to interview the other at the Bulawayo Festival last Sunday. The reason being that there was something that the club wanted to correct on the roles of the members of the technical department.
Gumede said that if the statement came from Zulu it was correct but if it emanated from Soma-Phiri it was not true.
Sources at number 50 Robert Mugabe Way revealed that Soma-Phiri who had told the media after winning the Easycall Cup last year that he was not interested in an inferior role of assistant coach, went on to inform the club leadership that he could not work with Zulu after a change of heart earlier this year.
However, he was bluntly told that there was no way he could choose who he was going to work with as he was only coming in to assist Akbay.
