Chronicle Editor
Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter
At exactly 1.30PM on Tuesday, the casket bearing the body of the late Highlanders’ president and former Zifa second in charge Ndumiso Gumede was lowered to its final resting place in Inyathi, Bubi District, in Matabeleland North province.
This was six days after the decorated football administrator breathed his last at Mpilo Central Hospital after a short illness. Scores of mourners attended the burial, while those who couldn’t make it were at his memorial service at Amphitheatre on Monday, a service that saw Gumede’s hearse passing through the Highlanders clubhouse before going to Inyathi.
It’s without doubt that Gumede’s rise to the top echelons of football administration kicked off at Highlanders as a rookie 33-year-old when he became the Bulawayo giants’ chairman.
That is a fact.
He rose to prominence from the football school known as Highlanders, but it’s also an undeniable fact that he was to later become a national icon. His stature grew beyond Highlanders and Bulawayo. Yours Truly was a national treasure, a larger than life character whose death also touched the country’s First Citizen. That on its own proves that Gumede had outgrown Highlanders and even Bulawayo, although the two remained his home right up to his death on Wednesday December 29.
Suggestions that Highlanders honour Gumede by naming the club offices after him are welcome and, in fact, very noble.
If the Bosso offices can’t be named after him, then certainly the Luveve camping house, known as Hotel California, must as well be the Ndumiso Gumede House. If only that happens, then it will just confine Gumede’s stature to Bulawayo only, yet the man was bigger than that.
Everyone has described Gumede as the best administrator this country has ever had, so why not immortalise him at national level rather than only at Highlanders.
The name Ndumiso Emmanuel Gumede can not just disappear from the football terrain, no, it will be a great insult to this icon.
Bosso can name one of their properties after Gumede, yes, but something national must also be done; something which will go beyond Highlanders. Zifa Village was his brainchild, why not name it Ndumiso Gumede Village?
That way football would have immortalised Gumede. We can’t deny that great footballers have also passed on and should be immortalised, but few illuminated the whole nation like Gumede.
Most were club level heroes and besides, they were duly paid for their services.
None played for free, it might not have been enough, but at least their sweat and toil were rewarded.
Administrators like Gumede made personal sacrifices for the betterment of the game for 48 years. At one time his life was in danger after receiving death threats during the Asiagate investigations, but the man never let up together with Benedict Moyo.
In the process of those investigations, they were also enticed with some inducements, but they stood firm.
The game was in grave danger and needed to be saved and fortunate Gumede was there to render that football saving service.
If all these sacrifices are not good enough for the nation to immortalise Gumede, then one wonders what will.
But again, this might not happen and Gumede being Gumede, he certainly won’t cry, just like he sang on December 22, a week before he was called.
Continue resting easy Yours Truly!
Online Reporter