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Sikhumbuzo Moyo Senior Sports Reporter
FORMER Highlanders striker Ozias Zibande has rejected claims that he did not extend his contract with the Bulawayo giants due to bad advice.
Zibande, who has since joined Rahman Gumbo’s Gaborone United in Botswana, has instead blamed head coach Bongani Mafu for his departure saying the gaffer had told him two weeks before the expiry of his contract that he was excess to requirements and wanted to loan him out to a lower division club.
Speaking for the first time since parting ways with Bosso last month, Zibande, 22, said Bosso wanted to loan him to Bulawayo Chiefs in a swap deal involving Ishmael Wadi, but he was not interested.
“It’s not true that I was being advised by anyone against signing a new contract. That decision (not to sign) was made by me and me alone,” said Zibande in an exclusive interview with Chronicle Sport yesterday just before departing for Botswana.
“Highlanders started talking to me two weeks before the expiry of my contract and I don’t know whether coach Mafu knew that my contract was ending on July 31, but as a player, it was worrying me that no one from the club had come forward to talk about my contract renewal”.
Mafu accused Zibande of negotiating in bad faith last month saying the player had walked away from negotiations a record four times after seemingly agreeing terms with the club.
The coach said he seriously valued Zibande as a player, but claimed he was being badly advised.
Zibande, Mafu said, would ask for some time to go through the proposed deal, only to sneak out of the club’s offices unnoticed.
However, the player yesterday said he naturally shifted his focus away from Highlanders as the days of his contract drew to a close because he was solely dependent on football for survival.
“Three days after initially saying I was no longer in his plans, Mafu came back and said he now wanted me in his team, but I was sceptical that once I signed, I would be at the mercy of the club who could have just kept me without giving me some game time.
“I then made up my mind to look for employment elsewhere, so no one, and I want to repeat, no one was advising me against extending my contract,” he said.
Zibande, who broke into the Highlanders’ first team in 2012 where he made four starts and came on as a substitute six times, scoring five goals in the process, said his blood would remain black and white.
“I grew up at Highlanders from the Under-13s right up to the Under-19s in Division Two and eventually the first team. They taught me football and even as I painfully turn my back on them, I know that one day I will again don that black and white jersey, ayisiyomfihlo leyo,” he said.
Zibande will be part of Gaborone United’s Caf Confederations Cup squad this year.
Gaborone United qualified for the continental safari after beating Township Rollers 2-1 in the final of the Mascom Top 8 in April.
Zibande could make his Gaborone United debut as early as this Friday against Orapa United, which is coached by another Zimbabwe and Highlanders legend Madinda Ndlovu.
He joins a list of talented Highlanders players that went through the club’s ranks only to leave in a huff in frustration at not getting enough game time.
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter