Chronicle Editor
Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
LOSING out on promotion to the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League has not deterred determined Zifa Southern Region Division One side Talen Vision, who are on the verge of venturing into milling, which will see the club having its own mealie meal brand.
Mkhululi Mthunzi, the Talen Vision general manager, said their milling project will be taking off soon, with the preliminary stage done.
“We have done the entire groundwork, have designed our packaging, secured the premises, partly secured the machines, so we are almost there. Very soon, our product will be hitting the market,” Mthunzi said.
The idea, Mthunzi said, is to ensure that they diversify their income streams to become self-sustaining as a club without over dependence on their main sponsors Trukumb Mining, whose operations are in Filabusi.
“We are consolidating this year so that Talen Vision becomes an independent entity with limited resources coming from the core sponsor. Basically, we want to be self-sufficient, we want to carry ourselves as an entity,” he said.
The club already has a food court, brick moulding as well as construction and engineering businesses operating in Filabusi. Funds to purchase the grinding mills came from the brick moulding initiative, which started early this year as a brain child of the club’s president Khumbulani Nkomo.
“We have taken what the brick moulding has produced to fund the milling project that we are about to start. We are at an advanced stage to come up with our own product which will in turn secure food security for the players, admin staff, technical department and sponsors’ workers at the mine as well as the surrounding community,” said Mthunzi.
The club is looking to provide employment to players that can no longer continue playing.
“As Talen Vision, we are looking for partners; this project will also act as a fall back for our ageing players. Instead of throwing them into the streets, we will accommodate them in one of these projects. We will give first preference to our ageing players or players that cannot play anymore,” he said.
Talen Vision are embarking on something bigger clubs like Highlanders have tried and failed in the past.
Highlanders abandoned a similar project, which they had launched in partnership with Sunset Marketing in April 2017. However, Mthunzi is confident that theirs will be successful since they are doing it on their own.
“The means of production is ours, we will make sure it survives. It will be a branded product and we have done our research so it will be perfect. All we have done is come up with a vibrant brand of mealie meal so it will never die a natural death,” Mthunzi said.
Last year, Talen Vision were involved in a fierce battle for promotion to the PSL with Bulawayo City.
Despite at some stage having a seven-point advantage, Talen Vision surrendered that lead, allowing Amakhosi to overtake them and earn promotion to the country’s elite league. — @Mdawini_29
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