adminTHE saga over Highlanders Football Club cash which was lost after secretary-general Emmet Ndlovu was mugged in South Africa has taken a new twist with damming evidence that indeed the club’s South African chapter was given the club’s banking details.
Under fire Highlanders’ chief executive officer Ndumiso Gumede on Friday released a WhatsApp conversation in which the club’s financial officer, a Mnkandla forwarded the Bosso’s bank account details to the SA Supporters Chapter’s vice chairman, Chris Zulu.
Gumede said they had to release the messages to “set the record straight” following media reports attributed to the SA Supporters Chapter chairman Daniel Molokele and secretary Khumbulani Moyo refuting that they had in their possession the Bosso bank account details.
Ndlovu was allegedly robbed of $300, P300 and R25 000 at Edenvale at gunpoint on the morning of 29 September.
South African fans chapter had on 27 September handed over R14 500 to Ndlovu, proceeds from the sale of replica jerseys.
According to the WhatsApp messages dated, 8 August, Zulu introduced himself to Mnkandla and informed her they had sold 10 jerseys and they didn’t want to keep the money with them and asked for the club’s bank account number so that they could transfer the cash. She obliged by providing Bosso’s BanABC rand account number.
Although initially Zulu declined confirming being sent the account details for fear of reprisals from other committee members he later admitted to receiving it but added he no longer has it as it “got lost along the way”.
He admitted speaking to Mnkandla but added he had no recollection of being sent the account details and asked to re-check his messages again but later said they had been deleted.
“I spoke to a lot of people at Highlanders and I clearly remember speaking to her (Mnkandla) and it has been a while, sometime around August or early last month. We had a chat and I think she sent me the account number but right now I don’t have it, she could have sent it and it got lost along the way,” said Zulu.
When pushed further, Zulu later admitted that the reluctance to confirm that indeed he was given the account details was due to “unnecessary club politics” that had engulfed the issue, adding such petty squabbles could lead to the demise of the club.
Curiously, SA Supporters Chapter treasurer, Alexander Maseko refused to be drawn into the issue saying he did not handle the funds.
“At Highlanders we are working as a team and we cannot just lie about such things maybe they (SA Supporters Chapter) are the ones who are divided and they do not work as a team. What I don’t like is that there is an insinuation that I hate Emmett or there is a plot to malign him but why would we do that? Maybe people do not want to see a united executive and they are making silly plots,” said Maseko.
Gumede said some people seemed intent on heaping the blame on the executive on any issue that arose within the club, “to make us look bad.”
He said the club prides itself in observing good corporate governance and would remain steadfast with those principles.
Gumede reiterated that Ndlovu made the decision on his own to receive the money without prior consultation with other Highlanders executive members.
Ndlovu, on the other hand refused to comment, saying: “I have been traumatised and humiliated enough, I don’t want to talk about that incident anymore.” However, he has said he he would repay the money, after admitting that he made an individual decision to collect the hard cash.
derick.khumalo
Online Reporter