By Sokhela ‘Sox’ Mabhena, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
I write this article on the backdrop of the death of Ndumiso Emmanuel Gumede whose story has been told by many in the last two months.
Having read most of the eulogies on the acclaimed son, brother, father, uncle, teacher, entertainer and sports administrator, I have decided to add my own opinion alas from an angle few have dared to or never really looked at.
The angle is that of sports widows and orphans.
Many a household is abandoned by fathers and to some extent mothers when it’s soccer rugby, basketball or netball season.
For several months on weekends families become secondary appendages to all manner of sports teams.
For some the fact that they become afterthoughts in preference to a sport is at first hard to accept but eventually they give in. For others acceptance is not or never possible and the result is broken relationships.
On a personal level my first experience of being a child of a soccer fanatic and a sports widow, I was told of the day I was born.
Apparently I arrived on a weekend and a crucial one.
Some cup game was on and as fate would have it the game went into extra time meaning I met my father well after visiting hours and through a ground floor window for that matter.
I wonder how many of my generation had such an honour/dishonour?
Over the years as I grew up I got to meet, be friends with school mates who were children of sports fanatics such the Hlabangana twins Jabu and Nonhlanhla, children/grandchildren of Vana and the Highlanders founding player, Nsele.
The Gumede twins Ca and Mo sons of Ndumiso Gumede, Vincent and Gary Nyumbu, sons of Mashonaland United/Zimbabwe Saints and Bulawayo Wanderers striker John, his teammate Gibson Homela’s daughters whom I would meet later in life through my brief involvement with basketball.
From Bulawayo Wanderers/Eagles Sanele and Silindile Sibanda son/daughter of the late national hero Adv Kennedy M Sibanda, Vusumuzi and Mehleli Mpofu as well as their sisters who were the children of the late Joshua Mpofu the retired headmaster of Northlea High School an ardent Mazhiya follower. Dumisani Muhlwa son of the former Highlanders FC chair Rodger and finally Vikizitha Moyo whose father the late Benson was a serious Bosso fanatic.
As the years went by Vikizitha and myself began to spend our weekends at Barbourfields Stadium being indoctrinated in the affairs of Bosso.
As a result of my father’s involvement in Highlanders I am probably one of the few who experienced at first hand how club sports is administered through all the insults and sleepless nights.
Throughout all this the sports widows of the following men Nsele and Vana Hlabangana, Jimmy Ncube, Ubaba W Ngwenya, Enock Mangena, Jonathan T Mhlanga, Ndumiso Emmanuel Gumede, Peter Dube, Rodger Muhlwa and Joel Mabhena remained resolute.
Some even joined their husbands and fathers at the team’s home games.
The results of these insults and late nights are all being felt and enjoyed today. Highlanders became one of the few if not the first to have it’s own offices, clubhouse and camping facility.
The club became the first African club to have such facilities in Zimbabwe and our then bittersweet rivals Saints soon followed with their acquisition of the Queens Park East facility.
As for Bosso the untold story is how the club actually had an audacious bid to acquire Queens Sports Club turned down several times until the then Queens Bowling Section was given as an alternative.
This gift still stands as testament to the hard work and planning by the likes of Ndumiso Emmanuel Gumede & co. The results also saw the club in the long term winning trophies & League titles multiple times. The culture of planning is still evident at Bosso and it’s a gift that has been given to many at the club since then. The vision of the likes of Gumede culminated in the club having various sports codes under it’s wings. The only other clubs in Africa that have such arrangements to my knowledge are the Egyptian giants Al Ahly and Zamalek.
In Europe the closest in terms of community owned clubs are Real Madrid and Barcelona.
As the years went by I would drive my father to and from Board meetings, Annual General Meetings and games.
I recall how some meetings would end late into the night or AGMs at McDonald Hall would become heated as proceedings became near fistfights in a packed auditorium. Some administrators divorced or came close to losing jobs for Bosso or relations souring because of hours dedicated to the club at the expense of the family.
Players instead of doing club business at the club offices opted to camp at the company’s reception area and just because his bosses were just as sports mad they somehow let things slide instead of disciplining the errant worker.
My own father (Joel) had one or two regrets in life.
The first one was his inability to get a former pupil of his, Agent Sawu to play for his beloved Bosso. The second regret was in a time of bereavement, meaning he missed a classic at Barbourfields between Highlanders and Dynamos.
My mother caught him as he unlocked the car in an attempt to sneak away from his sister’s funeral wake.
My mother simply said: “Uyangaphi? Ibhora kalibaleki. Abantu bazokukhalela, wena uyabaleka. Akuhlale phansi.”
As we remember the likes of Ndumiso Emmanuel Gumede I urge the Bosso faithful to remain resolute and to honour the sacrifices of these great men who started, maintained and improved an institution. My final appeal to the millions of fans worldwide and to the current custodians we have entrusted with the burden of looking after and running our club is to ensure that the club offices and the clubhouse are razed to the ground. Modern structures ought to be built.
Yikho okungenza abadala belale ngokuthula.
