adminAfter being given the first opportunity to discuss the chairman’s report, Zulu took the meeting through some statistical data, which included the total number of combined years of players that played for the team last year, stunning some when he said the players had a total of more than 1 000 years.
Before his address he briefly turned budding musician taking the members through one of Bosso’s war cries and some members were overwhelmed by emotion as they went down memory lane.
Zulu then addressed the meeting for well over 10 minutes, with his concern mainly being the technical aspects.
“Right now you employed coaches and none of you here has the qualifications and experience to hire a coach. You need to have a different committee made up of people like us,” said Zulu.
He then went on and pointed at the top table again which had the executive and some of the board members and said he wondered if any of them had a clue what a back pass was.
Some members could be heard grumbling while others shook their heads in disbelief. “I am extremely saddened by what I have heard from a man of experience like Zulu, I think he insulted the board and the executive. It pains me most because these people were put there by us,” said one member in response to Zulu’s comments.
A clique, who believe Zulu never did anything wrong, demanded that the member sits down as they saw nothing wrong with those comments. It took the master of ceremony, Andrew Tapela, who handled the meeting well, to quell down emotions which were running high. Away from the “back pass” moment, members who were present raised a lot of comments which were a huge turn from the expected and non-productive and volatile nature of previous Highlanders meetings.
Former club secretary and now turned politician Nhlanhla Bahlangene Dube felt the executive presented a very promising report but asked whether the club had any plans in place to reduce or clear some of the debts.
“We have spoken to a prominent politician to at least halve our debt although we will be grateful if all of it is cleared but what I can also tell our members is that we are managing the growth of our debt, that I can assure you. I am appealing though that let us desist as members from writing to our sponsors and urging them to pull out,” responded treasurer Odiel Nkomo.
On players’ code of conduct Dube advised that players who engage in football politics should not be part of the cultured Highlanders norm.
“It worries me when a player comes out in the press and says that his future at the club will depend on the outcome of the pending elections. Surely such a player does not deserve to be here,” said Dube.
Even though he did not name the player, Rahman Kutsanzira was quoted in one of the local daily papers saying that his stay at Highlanders would be influenced by the outcome of the Highlanders elections which are on this Sunday.
Tsholotsho High School headmaster Sicelo Dube called on the executive to engage Nash when they embark on their rural talent identification programmes. “We have a lot of talented youngsters out there and if you could engage the Nash leadership I am sure it will go a long way in helping our club get quality players. Our national vice-chairperson is here with us in this meeting so I do not see any hindrance to that,” said Dube.
In response, club chairman Themba Ndlela said his executive would immediately follow the advice before urging Nash to assist the club by forwarding their calendar of events.
Online Reporter