Chronicle Editor
ONE of the best dribblers ever seen in this country, Boy Ndlovu on Friday poured his heart out for the man who mentored him, Advocate Siwanda Kennedy Mbuso Sibanda.
Advocate Sibanda died in South Africa on Wednesday after a long battle with illness.
His family had taken him across the Limpopo hoping that he would get better but that was not to be the case.
Ndlovu was in Bulawayo on a short private business and received the sad news while here.
The winger said it was a heart tearing piece of news to him as he had been very close to the veteran lawyer for close to 40 years.
He described Advocate as his Second Father and the Sibanda family as his other.
He said he got to be the man he is in life through the legal brain’s tutelage.
He was the first to post the news on the Eagles/Bulawayo Wanderers FC group and tributes began pouring.
Adv Sibanda passed on the same day with former Highlanders striker Nkululeko Dlodlo and two days after former Black Rhinos junior Tawineyi Nhachi.
To many Boy Ndlovu was Adv Sibanda’s son. The winger was for almost a decade among the most prized players at the club and country.
Every coach wanted Boy Ndlovu in his side as he was a creative genius whose style suited the Mazhiya game.
Ndlovu spoke of how he met Adv Sibanda as a junior who immediately developed a liking in him.
“He was a great man.
He liked me from the juniors, he must have spotted potential in me as he took off from the word go for a liking in me, treating me as if I was his son from the time I was a junior,” said Ndlovu.
Ndlovu joined the Bulawayo Wanderers juniors in 1977 when he turned out for the Under-14s.
The Menace as he was affectionately known would make it to the Bulawayo Wanderers first team in 1980.
He was part of the team that won the first BAT Rosebowl Cup in independent Zimbabwe.
Adv Sibanda’s love for Boy Ndlovu was shown in 1981 when Nico United raided the Eagles nest.
Nico United are a decades old football club based in Selibe Phikwe, Botswana.
The Batswanas lured 18-year-old Ndlovu, Stanford Ntini and two other players.
“Umdala called the Batswanas and told them I was far too, too young to go and play outside the country.
After three weeks I returned to the club and Advocate Sibanda did not say anything. He appeared happy though that I was back.
“It is either he felt I was far, far too young to be let alone in a foreign country or perhaps he saw potential in me and believed I could grow at his club,” said Ndlovu.
The former Zimbabwe and senior national team winger said in Adv Sibanda he had a fatherly figure to turn to.
“Sibanda loved me.
I felt like I was his son as even his wife and children embraced me as part of the family.
“He did a lot of things for me and he was always proud of me. Our relationship went beyond Eagles as even years after leaving the club, I could still turn to him for whatever I wanted,” said Ndlovu.
The Menace said even on legal matters, Adv Sibanda was always there to help him at no charge.
Ndlovu said while it was felt he was preferred son, Adv Sibanda loved all his players. They had equal access to him and the family.
Ndlovu said Adv Sibanda’s Khumalo house was literally the team’s clubhouse.
“We camped there. At times when we trained at Milton High School, we would head to his home to watch videos and then leave the house late,” said Ndlovu.
The dribbling wizard said one time the Young Warriors played against Coventry in Gweru under floodlights and the next thing he was with Sibanda at the hotel.
“He actually drove over to watch me in action. It was a Friday and on Saturday we were playing Zisco at White City Stadium.
He wanted me to be part of the team and we must have beaten the Midlanders 4-1 and if my memory is correct I scored two goals.
“When I joined the club in 1977, Advocate Sibanda was already in charge.
He sank a fortune into the club and were it not for him, I am sure Eagles or Bulawayo Wanderers would have collapsed,” Ndlovu said.
Leaving Eagles was not an easy thing to do for Ndlovu.
“The old man had been too good to me.
There were problems at the club and there was a faction that was fighting him, staying on meant I was going to be pitted against him, so he sold me to Highlanders and I was happy about the move as it was his wish that I play for Bosso instead of betraying him,” said Ndlovu of his move to Bosso in 1988, one of the biggest transfers by Bosso.
Ndlovu said Eagles was run like Kaizer Chiefs.
“We had a very colourful and beautiful gold and black strip bought by Advocate Sibanda.
There were Kaizer Chiefs colours and he wanted us to play with the same flamboyancy of Amakhosi of old where individual talent was knitted into team effort to produce flawless and entertaining football.”
Who would forget the skilful Asani Karigeni, brilliant Elvis ‘Chuchu” Chiweshe, Rahman Gumbo, Stoneshed Moyo, Stanford Ntini, Simon Ncube, Joseph Ndlovu and the menacing wingers Tanny Banda and Boy Ndlovu.
Another former Eagles starlet Prince Moyo showered Adv Sibanda with praises.
“Advocate SKM Sibanda was a humble man of principle. He dedicated his life to two causes (besides his family of course) – justice through law and the Bulawayo Wanderers/Eagles project.
He changed many lives in both these causes. He will be dearly missed by the ordinary people of Bulawayo,” said Moyo.
Alban Mafemba a former Eagles and Zimbabwe Saints goalkeeper was so inspired by one of the country’s first black advocates that he too studied law after qualifying and rising to mechanical instructor with one big parastatal in Zimbabwe.
“It is with a heavy heart that I hear of the passing on of our great man Advocate SKM Sibanda”.
At Eagles we were moulded into a family unit full of love and care. He was a great motivator, he uplifted us, he inspired us.
“He put so much into our football that its history in Zimbabwe without his name is incomplete.
He personally inspired me to study law because of him, lawyers back then sounded different human species which was special because of his humility.
He encouraged us to pay attention to detail.
It will be hard to get such a leader,” said Mafemba who has working as a development coach in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Online Reporter