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Sikhumbuzo Moyo in BULAWAYO
HIGHLANDERS have said domestic football has lost one of its pillars after the club’s former chairman, team manager and iconic player, Ernest ‘‘Maphepha’’ Sibanda, died yesterday.
Sibanda, who also played for CAPS United, and managed the Warriors, was 63.
He succumbed to diabetes at Mater Dei Hospital where he had been admitted to for more than a week.
Bulawayo City FC have requested national hero status for Sibanda who, at the time of his death was a serving board member for the club.
In a letter to the Zanu PF Bulawayo province, club chairman, Jerry Sibanda, said Maphepha deserved to be declared a national hero because of his contribution to the game, at both club and national level.
His death comes in a tough week for local football which is still mourning the death of CAPS United legend, Joe ‘‘Kode’’ Mugabe.
‘‘The success story of Highlanders FC at the turn of the millennium, and early 2000s, is incomplete without mentioning (Sibanda’s) name,’’ said Bosso chairman, Johnfat Sibanda.
‘‘Above all, football is poorer without Ernest Sibanda. He loved football, in general, but he loved Highlanders passionately.
‘‘A great leader he was, a very charismatic and jovial character, from his playing days in the 1980s, he served as the club’s welfare manager, between 1998 and 2002, to when he served as the club’s executive chairman, and led Highlanders to their last championships, in 2006.
‘‘While he made a name for himself, through his exploits on the field of play. It’s when he became welfare manager where he won the hearts of many football followers, particularly Highlanders FC fans, through his magnetic character, and his successful and trophy-laden managerial stint, as welfare manager and executive chairman, between 1998 and 2006.
‘‘During his managerial days, he was a manager-par-excellence for the club, and the national team, as he became a father figure to the players he managed.
‘‘Maphepha remains the last Highlanders executive chairman to win the championship for the club.
‘‘While we are saddened by the loss of this great football giant, who left at a time when football still needed him, we are comforted by the fact that he leaves behind a very rich legacy which shall always be part of the club’s history.’’
His sister Beauty confirmed Sibanda had been battling diabetes for some time and died at about 11am yesterday.
“He also had cancer but he had been managing it well but diabetes is the disease which eventually took his life.
‘‘As a family, we are still trying to accept this but struggling to really take it in,” she said.
Sibanda leaves behind seven children, five girls and two boys. Mourners are gathered at House Number E259 in Njube.
Veteran sports journalist Lovemore Dube recently wrote a glowing tribute about Sibanda in an article for Sunday News. Sibanda, who also managed the Warriors, won five league championships, four as a team manager, and one as chairman, at Bosso.
He also won silverware at CAPS United.
A darling of the crowd during his playing days, Sibanda was a larger-than-life football character, whose influence and charisma, helped brand Highlanders.
His influence helped the tide change with Bosso building a strong national fan base across the country.
After a trophy drought, which had seen Highlanders collect their last piece of silverware in 1994, the BP League Cup, his arrival as team manager, during Roger Muhlwa’s term as chairman, saw Bosso rise again into a dominant force.
A good run, in the Second Division with Contex, between 1977 and 1978, saw his stock rise. Several big clubs were attracted and Bosso moved in and signed him in 1979. He played alongside greats like Tymon Mabaleka, Majuta Mpofu, Lawrence Phiri and Josiah Nxumalo.
Sibanda was part of the Highlanders team that won the Chibuku Trophy, 4-0 against Rio Tinto, the inaugural Heroes Cup 3-2 over Dynamos and lost 1-8, on aggregate, in the Rothmans Shield, to CAPS United.
In 1981, Sibanda got a job in Harare and joined the Green Machine.
It was a side teeming with talented players like Shacky Tauro, Joel Shambo, Stix Mtizwa and Stanley Ndunduma.
“It was a joy to play in Africa and we had a good administrator in Julius Chifokoyo. It was a great stay and I learnt a lot there,’’ Sibanda said.
In 1986 Sibanda was transferred to Bulawayo and work commitments meant he could not continue playing as much as he wanted. He bounced back as an administrator, injecting life into the Bulawayo Province Junior Soccer League.
With Bosso desperate for success, and a man with an appeal to both the football world and the community, Sibanda became their big catch. Things started happening, crowds improved and new stars were born.
He was also influential in breathing life into the Bulawayo Social Soccer League in the 1990s as he led Mpopoma’s Mthala from the front.
The social side had a number of big names who included Douglas Mloyi and Joshua Mhizha.
He also led the establishment of Mthala juniors, which produced players who went on to play in the PSL like Bekithemba Ndlovu, Golding Dube, Malvern Ntini, Dopi Tawi, Mike Zvivira, Abedi Nyoni and Mephias Webb.
Online Reporter