By Alvin Moyo, Football Writer
You know something’s wrong at a football club when the games being played in the board room are more interesting than the ones on the pitch.
As Highlanders contemplates how to make effective use if it’partnership with Sakunda Holdings, there is a fear, imagined or otherwise that the club’s chairman, Johnfat Sibanda who was elected this year may be attempting to eliminate his predecessor’s allies from the club.
There are some within the club who have been fanning deep divisions that immediately after the elections threatened to sink the club into unimaginable chaos. Many saw Sibanda’s election into office as detrimental to the club’s growth and development: this before he even set foot in office.
However, during his short time at the helm, he has managed to down a multimillion-dollar sponsorship package for the club. Some have suggested that this deal was begun by former chairman, Kenneth Mhlophe, but this is neither here nor there.
What is important for the club going forward is uniting behind the office not specifically the individual. Highlanders are the oldest indigenous football club in the land and that alone demands that the club is treated and handled with respect whether by its own fans or by its elected officials.
A few weeks ago, the club sent its Chief Executive Officer, Nhlanhla Dube on ‘forced’ leave three months before his contract with the club comes to an end with the club’s leadership arguing that he had not taken any leave since his appointment to head the club’s secretariat. This move spurred speculation that this was the beginning of a purge of all perceived Mhlophe acolytes who are within the club’s structures.
Friendly allies or not, rocking a steady ship unnecessarily is never a good thing for any organisation but there are strong fears within the annals of the club that indeed a purge is afoot. Dube’s forced leave of absence has left many within the club who arrived during Mhlophe’s tenure are worried that this alone may become the reason for their departure from the club.
Many club employees including the technical team and office staff are on walking on eggshells given that the new chairman’s ‘allies’ threatened them with dismissal as soon as their man got into office. Now, whether these threats were ever made cannot be proven, but what can be proven is that a lot was said during the campaign for the chairmanship but most of the time not by the two combatants themselves. This would then suggest that if he does pursue n agenda of purging the club, Sibanda may be his own man and is pandering to his handlers who enable him to be elected into office.
This said, the first key question that needs to be asked of those pursuing the agenda to purge the club is this: whose interests does this purge serve? Secondly, should Sibanda in fact purge the club and if he must, what is the criteria for who must go and who must stay?
A purge can only do more harm than good for the club: if whoever ‘must go’ was doing well for the club in whatever capacity they were in, why should their loyalty be called into question now? In fact, why must they be loyal an individual in the first place and the club?
Yes, sometimes a new broom does sweep clean, but there is need to have something to sweep in the first place. It is not practical to sweep a clean floor merely because one has bought a new broom!
Question: Should Johnfat purge Highlanders of Mhlophe allies?
Answer: Who are Mhlophe’s allies? I their blood not black and white enough?
Question: Who warrants loyalty: the club or an individual?
Answer: The club MUST come above all!
Question: Will a purge grow the institution that is highlanders Football Club?
Answer: No! It will just create more fissions within the club and eventually these fissures will become harder to hold together. And when this happens, who do we blame for the damage to this Old Lady of Zimbabwean football?
