Chronicle Editor
Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter
HIGHLANDERS continued to grow their basket of sponsors and strategic partners when they officially unveiled a partnership with Sanctuary Insurance at the club’s offices yesterday.
At the start of 2020, before Covid-19 wreaked havoc, Bosso held a strategic seminar where they came up with a three-year strategic plan.
One of the objectives was to make the club a commercially viable entity within three years.
The Bulawayo giants have not been deterred in their quest to achieve that goal with their latest pact being with Sanctuary Insurance.
Highlanders chairman Kenneth Mhlophe signed on behalf of the club, while Patrick Kusikwenyu, Sanctuary Insurance managing director, appended his signature on behalf of the insurance firm.
Sanctuary Insurance Company (Pvt) Ltd is a wholly Zimbabwean owned company with international associations, giving it direct access to the world market.
They are an independent company with no obligations to any institution.
This independence assures their clients of prompt, objective, independent and unbiased advice at all times.
In their partnership with Bosso, Sanctuary has refurbished and re-branded the Highlanders Toyota Coaster team bus, which is the official bus for the junior teams.
The bus also has all its insurance and road licence costs paid by Sanctuary.
Further, Sanctuary has paid for insurance of Bosso’s three office vehicles, thereby saving the club a substantial amount at a time when every cent counts
Fans, members and sympathisers that purchase insurance from Sanctuary will receive, among other benefits, 30 percent discount.
“There are a lot of Highlanders supporters who would like to put some money into the team’s coffers, but because of the situation we are in, there are demanding needs in families that may make it impossible for them to throw in some money for the team.
“We want to grow with the club so the partnership will go on for a long time,” said Sanctuary Insurance Southern Region general manager Dumisani Nyoni.
Bosso boss Mhlophe said: “So, all we have done is to say as you come to purchase your insurance policy, that policy will benefit Highlanders. The numbers that we are looking at are big numbers and we said numbers like these will benefit the club.
We cannot divulge the numbers at the moment, but I can guarantee you we are talking big numbers for a club as big as Highlanders,” said Mhlophe.
“We have as an industry gone for a full year with no football and this means a full year of expenses without income.
“It has been a full year of diminishing income and non-existing growth. Within this difficulty it has become more necessary than ever for member-owned clubs such as ours to become more innovative than ever to not only think outside the box, but to completely defy the physical and mental restraints of traditional thinking and create possibilities for survival.
Mhlophe also thanked former Highlanders chairman, Ernest “Maphepha” Sibanda under whose leadership the minibus was purchased. – @innocentskizoe
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