Chronicle Editor
Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter
THIS week I bumped into this other website that deals with human management topics. One topic that struck me was on the qualities of a good board member in an organisation.
The writer says key qualities of a good board member are passion, vision and leadership, stewardship, knowledge, diligence, collegiality and discretion.
According to this writer, passion is having a deep interest in the mission of one’s organisation, vision and leadership is the ability to see the big picture and the courage to set direction to achieve the organisation’s mission.
Stewardship is the integrity to serve the interests and pursue the goals of one’s organisation as well as the interests of the public and the organisation’s intended beneficiaries.
Knowledge according to this scholar, is the knowledge of one’s constituents and operations and organisational and managerial acumen.
Diligence is the dedication and commitment to fulfilling your organisation’s goals while collegiality is when one possesses a sincere and respectful attitude towards colleagues and their views.
Discretion he says, is maintaining confidentiality of board discussions while speaking with one voice when representing the organisation to the community.
As I went through these qualities of a good board member, in my mind flashed the Highlanders board of directors.
I looked at these seven qualities and asked myself if these gentlemen actually possessed any or all of these critical qualities and my answer was affirmative, with a bit of a restraint simply because I strongly suspect that one of these fine gentlemen is somehow lacking in at least two of the qualities and sadly this gentleman happens to be the leader of this board.
Reasons for my conviction are many and clear. Just three months ago, after the late club president Ndumiso Gumede’s honorary party, an audio circulated on social media where the esteemed board member categorically stated that they were some people in the Highlanders executive and even the board who didn’t deserve to be in those positions.
I mean really? A whole board chairman uttering such words? While perhaps it could be argued that this was a private conversation which unfortunately got recorded, at the funeral service and burial of ubaba uGumede, the board chairman uttered the same shocking, toxic and divisive statement.
Now this was in public yet he apparently saw nothing wrong with his toxic statement, to him it was all normal, he just couldn’t exercise restraint. How he thought members would view those in power mattered not to him.
Fast forward to the annual general meeting this year, instead of going through his speech, he went ballistic again, seething with rage at unknown executive members whom he said were not supposed to be in those positions.
“I am aware that we now have people who are at Highlanders yet they are not Highlanders,” he told members.
These are office bearers who were elected by club owners yet an unelected and probably un-electable person decides to criticise members’ choices and this person is supposed to be the board chairman.
What qualifies him to declare that somebody is not supposed to hold office at Highlanders, what yardstick is he using because members are guided by the constitution.
Candidates are also vetted by an electoral committee, what is he saying about his fellow board members who constitute that committee?
He also claimed, during his vitriol, that some people who were vying for Bosso elections (remember there were elections a week after the annual general meeting) were actually friends with certain executive members of a rival team in the Premier Soccer League.
“What I am seeing its not it in my over 40 years at Highlanders, we are becoming wayward. Some of us are friends with club owners, club administrators from other teams,” he said.
Surely a whole board chairman dwelling on trivial and petty issues instead of uniting people? In this case he was probably referring to then aspiring vice chairman Fiso Siziba whose friendship with Bulawayo City vice-chairman and a Highlanders son Zenzo Moyo goes way beyond football. Siziba is also a close pal of the Mayor, Solomon Mguni.
If he was referring to a serving executive member, why not talk about such issues during their joint meetings, why try and denigrate him in front of members? Is that what a leader should do?
In any event does it even matter? What is he saying about Highlanders players who are best of friends with players from rival teams?
Where is the respect and sincere attitude towards fellow colleagues in all this?
A leader thinks and behaves beyond his or her own ego. A leader can even sacrifice his own conviction and personal belief so that those he leads can survive.
A leader unites, he doesn’t divide or cause division. That is what the late Father Zimbabwe did when he signed the Unity Accord in 1987.
That is also what the ever administratively sober Peter Dube did as chairman when members had almost passed a vote of no confidence on the board in 2013? That is what leaders do.
Was it really necessary for the board chairman to castigate whoever it was, a former executive member for going about saying that he was the one who brought the BancABC sponsorship?
Even if this former executive member was lying, was it the job of a whole board chairman to make noise about it at an AGM? It’s so trivial, childish and unfortunate.
It’s as unfortunate as the claim by the seemingly all too powerful board chairman that he was heavily involved in the BancABC sponsorship negotiations when it’s common knowledge that the deal was sealed when Themba Ndlela was executive chairman and Dumisani Sandi was the board chairman in 2011.
It’s high time Highlanders members challenged some of the things said and done by such leaders because if they don’t, only one thing can happen, deep rooted divisions and hatred within the family all to the eventual demise of Highlanders Football Club.
As the mid-season review meeting approaches in just over three months’ time, members must actually demand to know who in the executive and board does not deserve to be in that position and the reasons for that.
There have been board chairmen in the past but their humility and astuteness earned them unrivalled respect, they never involved themselves in petty issues, at least in public, which is what leaders do in any case.
Last year players wrote a petition saying they had lost confidence in chairman Johnfat Sibanda and wanted him gone with former chairman Kenneth Mhlophe coming back because, said the players, Mhlophe would use his personal resources to pay them.
That letter found itself at a joint executive and board meeting and yes, you guessed right, the
“big” man had excitedly taken it there obviously expecting support from his colleagues but it is said that Gumede would have none of it.
Since when have players decided who runs Highlanders?
Gumede, (may his soul continue resting in peace) by refusing to entertain the no confidence petition from the players, had stood by a sitting executive for the second time.
The first was the Josiah Dube-led executive which the current board chairman was part of in 1989. Gumede then was with Zifa and he unequivocally told the players that only club members can remove an elected executive.
Everyone knows what happened to that executive after Gumede’s intervention.
Highlanders members must seriously look at their board chairman, Luke Mnkandla, an undoubted airwaves legend who however, must improve on his leadership skills and qualities.
Online Reporter