Online Reporter
Lovemore Dube, Zimpapers Sports Hub
HIGHLANDERS chairman Kenneth Mhlophe is under mounting fire from within, with life member Pilate Mahlangu calling for a vote of no confidence and accusing the Bosso leadership of letting the club run “on autopilot.”
Mahlangu, a Doctor of Laws candidate in Corporate Law and a former candidate for the executive, confirmed yesterday that he sent the explosive motion to the club last Friday.
“Yes, I authored the motion and submitted it to that email,” Mahlangu told Zimpapers Sports Hub.
He said the move was meant to force Mhlophe and his team to take full responsibility for the state of the city’s biggest sporting institution.
“The idea is to hold him to account from now. Public officials should remember it’s not their personal property,” he said.
Mahlangu’s broadside comes just weeks after former board member Thomas Ngwenya claimed Highlanders was being run like “someone’s private business.”
While Mahlangu admits the constitution requires a two-thirds majority for his motion to pass, he insists it’s still a necessary stand.
“I doubt if it will get the two-thirds majority, but it should be a wake-up call,” he said. “Leaders of institutions should be subordinate to membership.”
The long serving Bosso member accused staff of running affairs without discipline or oversight.
“People in the institution (workers/office etc.) are doing mathanda (as they please])around Highlanders and the chairman is either complicit or clueless, likely the latter,” he charged.
In a detailed 11-point letter to Mhlophe, Mahlangu listed scandals, leaks, high CEO turnover, fraud allegations, questionable player transfers and a failure to set up an audit committee as proof the club is drifting.
Among the charges, he said:
• The club’s name has been dragged “through the mud” by one scandal after another.
• Confidential documents keep leaking from within the executive.
• CEOs have come and gone at an alarming rate.
• Fraud allegations, including a $5,000 case involving a former CEO, remain unresolved.
• Dubious player deals, including the “Mafios Chichewa PE Academy/Ajax debacle” and “Simba Madzivire mystery,” show management lapses.
• The delay in bringing in a rumoured new coach contrasts sharply with the efficiency of rivals like CAPS United and Dynamos.
• On-field performances show no sign of a winning vision.
Mahlangu also blasted Mhlophe for presiding over what he called “the unenviable accolade” of being the first Zimbabwean club visited by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission.
“The train is on autopilot on the way to a crash landing,” Mahlangu warned. “As the head of the executive, you are vicariously liable for the deeds or misdeeds happening under your watch.”
Highlanders, founded in Makokoba in 1926, is more than just a football club in Bulawayo, it’s part of the city’s identity. But for Mahlangu, the club’s current path threatens both its heritage and its future.
Mhlophe could not be reached for comment by the time of going to print.
