adminInnocent Kurira in Bulawayo
YESTERDAY’S Highlanders annual general meeting (AGM) turned out to be just a routine gathering after the club failed to produce audited financial statements from last year.
The AGM almost failed to take off as some members felt there was no logic in going ahead with the gathering without the financial report.
For close to an hour, the Highlanders board tried to convince the members that they should go on with the meeting without the financial report, but the club members would not budge.
Interestingly, it was the board that took the heat from members instead of the executive and treasurer, Busani Mthombeni, who was in attendance.
Eventually, the members relented and the meeting went ahead. This is not the first time that the club has held an AGM without financials.
“Our auditors informed us that they will need three to four weeks to finish their audit. What it therefore means is we will have another meeting where we will then present the financials. The auditors said one of the reasons for the delay is the issue of using multi-currency,” said Highlanders’ secretary-general, Morgan Dube.
“The meeting went according to plan. We came here to give the members a brief on the work we did in 2022 and what is going to be happening this year. We conducted our meeting without any incidents, which is good.
“We cannot hide from the fact that the meeting began on a sour note because there was no audit report and the progress report of constitutional amendments. This agitated members, but as the Highlanders family, we talk things through and deal with them in a civil manner, which is what we did. We started on a bad patch, but after that everything went well as we engaged with the members,” Dube said.
Bekezela Ngoma, a card carrying member, said: “The meeting went well, but it’s unfortunate the financials were not there. We are hoping we will be back to deliberate on the financials. We were hoping for a better reason why the financials were not available because honestly, we started using multi-currency years back.”
Another member, who preferred not to be named, said: “The financials may not be in order, but it was best that the auditors come and inform us themselves rather than have the club relay the news to us.”
Besides the financials hiccup, one of the topical issues was allegations against assistant coach, Joel Luphahla, who is accused by some members of bringing players from outside Bulawayo while overlooking talent from the development side. Members were also not happy with the situation of midfielder Adrian Silla and winger Devine Mhindirira who are yet to report for training.
The players are said to be trying to find means of moving to Bosso’s bitter rivals Dynamos, despite being contracted to Bosso.
Highlanders have so far announced the departure of Bukhosi Sibanda, Nqobizitha Masuku and Muziwakhe Dlamini.
Bosso have recalled Reward Muza from his loan at Bulawayo City and promoted Gillian Nyathi from Bosso 90, while Calvin Chigonero has been loaned to them for a season by Talen Vision after scoring 17 goals in the ZIFA Southern Region Division One League.
Online Reporter