adminBothwell Mahlengwe
I HAVE always admired Highlanders for the order in their camp. Their constitution clearly spells out how the team should be run. And that they have been following it, something that is rare in Zimbabwe football, especially at “community clubs” like Dynamos and Highlanders.
Their elections have been fiercely contested, but peaceful and orderly.
When they played and lost to Dynamos in the TM Pick ‘n’ Pay Challenge Cup at the National Sports Stadium in September, I enquired from one of Highlanders’ top official about their secret to peace, order and calmness.
And he jokingly said, “maybe, we now need a bit of chaos.”
In 2011, Highlanders finished seventh in the championship race, the same year Pasuwa’s hat trick of championships began.
Highlanders’ reaction was to appoint Kelvin Kaindu as head coach in 2012.
Normally, you would have a coach coming in with his technical crew.
Not at Highlanders.
My feeling is because he was not “Highlanders enough” so he had to be surrounded by true Highlanders boys.
Although he was a former player, he is Zambian and not a Bulawayo boy.
Kaindu restored order and Bosso went 23 matches without defeat. Unfortunately, they lost the title race to Dynamos on goal difference.
It was a similar case in 2013 but they won the Mbada Diamonds Cup.
Kaindu’s trips to the UK for his advanced coaching badges, and the failure of his assistants to rise up to the occasion when their boss was away, were blamed for the failed mission to win the championship.
The assistants were fired.
Kaindu questioned the move.
Mark Mathe was named the new assistant and the ‘real’ Highlanders son, Peter Nkomo, came in as goalkeeper’s coach while another son Willard Khumalo took over as team manager.
Khumalo and Nkomo had had previous worked together at Highlanders. And they still harboured ambitions of being overally in charge. Why not, when they “deserve” it as part of their pension or inheritance?
Their influence could not be overlooked.
Obviously, their word to the executive and some players carried more weight than that of the head coach, especially when the team was not doing well.
That the team did well, in Kaindu’s absence, early in the season, might have made Mathe think he can do a better job.
From there onwards, he was a man after the boss’ job.
Indiscipline started to surface among the players, giving the signals that the centre wasn’t holding and there was a power struggle.
Kaindu’s plight was not helped by the loss of five key players — Peter Moyo and Milton Ncube left for South Africa. Masimba Mambare for Dynamos, Kudakwashe Mahachi and Khumbulani Banda left midway for Mzansi.
Any team is expected to suffer when its core leaves.
That means the coach had to start afresh.
Unfortunately, the Highlanders family were expecting wonders. And when the results didn’t come, the fans felt Kaindu’s time at their team was over.
That message was clearly spelt out in one Ezra ‘Tshisa’ Sibanda’s Facebook letter.
The management and executive responded through their CEO, Ndumiso Gumede, who publicly called for the coach to resign. They wanted to avoid the contractual obligations of firing the coach.
This was unprofessional on Gumede’s part (obviously, age is catching up with him) and a big vote of no confidence for Kaindu.
The working environment became toxic for the coach, and being the gentleman he is, he negotiated for his exist.
And all the wheels came off.
Then clueless Mathe was elevated into the hot seat, probably the worst decision ever. The Bosso bosses had been flattered by the team’s good show when Kaindu was in the UK.
Mathe’s shortcomings were brutally exposed when Highlanders played CAPS at the National Sports Stadium.
He had Innocent Mapuranga as his defensive midfielder and Mthulisi Maphosa as the playmaker.
When it didn’t work Mapuranga exchanged positions with Felix Chindungwe. How on earth do you expect a team to function when your creative hub is in the hands of man markers?
What Mathe thought would be an easy job turned into his worst nightmare.
Surely, his stint at Bosso is as good as over. As if that was not enough, Highlanders went on to call Cosmas Zulu from “wherever he was for the past 19 years” and appoint him technical advisor.
The Highlanders leadership should have known they were the ones to blame for not giving Kaindu a free reign and good working conditions.
Year in year out, they tended to stifle him of breathing space by surrounding with “saboteurs” in the name of keeping it in the family and maintaining control of the team from “outsiders.”
If the intention is to keep the team with the “real” Highlanders boys then just make it policy. By “real Highlanders” I mean ex-Highlanders players and Bulawayo boys.
Highlanders should learn that business, football in particular, now operates in a global community. The days of homeboys are long gone. They need to create a free environment where their employees are free to use their creativity and ingenuity to get the results needed.
Yes, as the leadership, they need to clearly articulate the club’s vision and goals. After that they have to give their people, especially the head coach, a free reign to enable him to bring his talent, knowledge and gifts to work and be fully engaged.
For Kaindu, Highlanders became a workplace devoid of social conscience.
Most of the time I would see him cast a lonely figure of an outsider and outcast. He is a very good coach who was consumed by a contaminated system. It’s a shame he even got touted as “a sheep herding lions.”
The opposite was true.
Yes, his failure to beat Dynamos was unforgiveable to the Highlanders’ faithful but he left our football richer.
Highlanders is a big institution, its healthy competitiveness don’t serve their multitudes of supporters only, but the totality of Zimbabwean football. They represent the southern divide of the nation and their matches against Dynamos make the “Battle of Zimbabwe.”
How then can it be the “Battle of Zimbabwe” when the other bull is sleeping?
Bothwell Mahlengwe is a banker and former Premiership footballer and can be contacted, for feedback, on the email —
Online Reporter