Chronicle Editor
Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
Bulawayo City Football Club have sent in a request for football legend, Ernest “Maphepha” Sibanda who died today (Tuesday) to be accorded national hero status.
Sibanda, a former Highlanders player, team manager and chairman was a Bulawayo City board member at the time of his death. He would have turned 64 next month.
In a letter written to the Zanu-PF Bulawayo leadership, Amakhosi chairman Jerry Sibanda requested that the ruling party declares the late Ernest Sibanda a national hero.
“The Bulawayo City board, executive and management requests National Hero status for one of Zimbabwe’s most outstanding sporting heroes – Ernest Sibanda who was a club board member.
“With the below citation we are confident that he qualifies and will be a deserving recipient of a National Hero status conferment on the role he played in nation building and his success,’’ reads part of Bulawayo City’s letter.
Amakhosi described the late Sibanda as a true Zanu-PF cadre who exemplified the massive role played by sport before and after independence in bringing the nation together.
Born 23 September 1957 in Lumene, Gwanda, Sibanda grew up in his rural area before he came to Bulawayo for his secondary education. An attacking midfielder during his playing days, he played for Cone Textiles prior to moving to Highlanders where he played with the likes of Fanuel Ncube, Mark Watson, Majuta Mpofu, Tymon Mabaleka and Majuta Mpofu. He also played for Caps United before he returned to Highlanders prior to his retirement.
Sibanda was in 1998 appointed Highlanders team manager and he was in that role when Bosso won four championships in a row from the 1998/99 season up to 2002. When Amahlolanyama won the four championships on the trot, Sibanda was famous for bouncing the ball at the centre circle a few minutes before kick off in a packed Barbourfields Stadium every time Highlanders a home match.
Such a popular figure at Highlanders, Sibanda was in 2006 elected as club chairman in absentia when he was the Zimbabwe Warriors team manager at the Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt. In his fist year, Sibanda landed the championship with another former Bosso son, Methembe Ndlovu as the coach.
His passion was not only in football as Sibanda also played a significant role as a sponsor and darts player in Bulawayo. Sibanda was a formidable darts player at Highlanders and also formed Archers Darts Club, a dominant team in Bulawayo and country over the years.
Sibanda supported boxing too and worked with the sport’s promoters in Bulawayo, Jeff Dube Omega Sibanda and Dumisani Mabhena to grow the sport of professional boxing.
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