Chronicle Editor
Stanford Chiwanga
MANCHESTER United have Ed Woodward, Highlanders FC have Johnfat Sibanda. What do the two have in common? They talk big and deliver little.
While Woodward is a politician, who never tires from lying to United fans, Sibanda, on the other hand, is an honest man, so honest that he admits failure before he has even started.
Before you think this is a hatchet job by a hired gun, arrest your thoughts for a moment and formulate your judgment after reading through.
On Thursday, Sibanda, the Bosso supremo, who has only been in the hot seat for seven weeks now, shot himself in the foot when he let slip that most of his election campaign promises will be impossible to fulfil because of Covid-19, a pandemic that was there when he was campaigning.
“It’s been exciting. I am happy to say I joined a very vibrant team and I have just jelled in. I will try and find out what has been happening and also come up with my new ideas if ever needed. That’s exactly where we are. The train is moving, we are working hand in glove.
“It’s not easy out there to look for means of survival for the team because of Covid-19. As the executive team, we are aware of the task ahead due to Covid-19 and we all know that the corporate world is nowhere to be found, but we are working,” said Johnfat.
But he was not done, he told the 154 Bosso members, who made him chairman, that they should stop viewing him as a messiah that was prophesied by some sections of the media.
“Let’s talk about me as the Highlanders chairman. Before the elections I was Johnfat, now I am the chairman, I talk through a system. I can only talk on things that I am mandated to talk on. I lead an executive committee that tells me what to do and how to do it. It is difficult to compare a Johnfat, who was campaigning, to a Johnfat, who is now an executive member.
What I am saying here is what I am mandated to say as an executive chairman. I am here at Highlanders now; I talk as the chairman and say what I am mandated to say, not what I said as an individual.
“Here is one thing that we have to appreciate about Highlanders; there is a structure that you have to follow. You do not come here and make your own structures, there is a process that you follow. Things that you dream of outside the executive you can only do them through a process, not alone. Your dream can always be driven through a system.”
Many leaders have been recalled for less, but Sibanda would not be stopped as he then locked himself in a room with his followers, doused it with petrol and lit a matchstick: “If I said it as Johnfat then I do not know what you are talking about. Here I am Highlanders chairman, not Johnfat,” he said when quizzed about his statements soon after winning elections that the club had been freed from capture and returned to its owners.
Sibanda seems to be a man who knows not how to lie and twist the hard truth, but his truths are not helping and the portrait he painted of himself is a painful one.
He said too much and any attempt to soften his words, backtrack a little or provide some context, will be met with incredulity and shaking heads; there is no escaping from this. The truth hurts and the truth is that Highlanders are in trouble.
Deep down, everyone knows that. Former chairman Kenneth Mhlophe certainly did; that’s why he secured a gold mine for Bosso in an attempt to move the club away from relying on benevolence and gate takings.
Sibanda should have talked up the mining venture in his first press conference as chairperson, unpalatable to him as that thought might be.
But he didn’t because he probably thought he would be propping up Mhlophe.
And while most knew that Highlanders have a leadership crisis and a dreadful financial situation, the extent of it was not yet clear, at least not publicly.
There’s a difference between knowing that and it being laid bare from inside in such blunt terms. No previous chairman ever did that.
Well, it has now come to this; the institutional crisis is so bad that the man tasked with navigating the ship out of the rough waters thinks it’s best to throw in the towel before he has even attempted to do a rescue job.
Within the club, there are those who think saying it publicly was irresponsible and certainly out of place.
A public airing of your problems is hardly the best tactic to win over club stakeholders that don’t believe in you and the corporate world since everyone now knows how desperate you are.
It could even be seen as an invitation for the board to release Sibanda from office through a vote of no confidence by a two thirds majority of a special general meeting.
A justification has been offered by Sibanda himself and why should a man with no sound plan lead Bosso?
The Highlanders’ constitution is clear: “Within 30 days after holding of elections for contested executive positions each year the executive committee shall submit a written budget, programme of action and targets to the board of directors for consideration and approval and such budgets, programmes and targets approved by the board of directors shall not be varied or supplemented without prior approval by the board of directors.”
There was honesty in Sibanda’s words, but it wasn’t wise to share it.
He’s supposed to paint a picture of optimism, not to appear to paint a picture of a journey into the unknown.
“Highlanders people love their team; we love our team. We have not met anyone who is hostile among the people that we have talked to,” said Sibanda.
After his misstep on Thursday, he is now likely to be greeted by a hostile constituency and a hostile board not impressed by his Press conference performance.
A clever man would fall on his sword before he is taken to the guillotine, kicking and screaming. Is Sibanda wise enough to realise that he is a dead man walking?
He may survive the crisis of his own making, but one thing is clear, Sibanda is no longer a trusted man. Not that he was trusted by many anyway; he won a closely contested election by 154 votes to 149.
Winning over the 149 members and other members and fans, who thought he was not the man for the job, is now a daunting task.
Whoever said “silence is golden” must have had Sibanda in mind.
Online Reporter