Chronicle Editor
Lovemore Dube, Sports Correspondent
VETERAN soccer coach Cosmas Zulu has challenged Highlanders Football Club to prioritise the gathering of the club’s history.
Zulu said this on Friday at Umvutshwa Cemetery during the burial of legend Sifiso Mguni who died in Johannesburg, South Africa on 23 January at the age of 49. This came after the coach who served Highlanders for over 20 years realised that there was no one from the club’s hierarchy at the funeral. Zulu told the mourners how Mguni had impacted so positively on his arrival at Bosso in 1992.
“Barry Daka and I were looking for a replacement for Willard Khumalo when he arrived. We wanted an anchorman who calculated his tackles, runs, passing and Sifiso had that,” said Zulu of the 1993 league championship winning star.
Zulu commended Mguni for being well mannered saying he was among those players who were quiet and well-disciplined and never gave any problems to the coaches. The coach who severed ties with Ngezi Platinum last week said Amahlolanyama were lucky in that within the team’s institutional memory there were players and people who could tell the club’s history from the 1950s right to the present day.
“They must get the history while Zenzo Moyo lives, they must get the history while Mayfield Daka lives, they must get the history while Gift Lunga is alive,” said Zulu to dozens of approving nods.
Highlanders is the country’s oldest club and most followed team in the Zimbabwe Premiership in terms of match attendances by paying crowds. Among its former players at junior and senior level are four players and only ones who are home groomed to play in the demanding English Premiership, Peter Ndlovu, Bruce Grobbelaar, Marvelous Nakamba and Benjani Mwaruwari.
Mguni’s body had arrived overnight ending weeks of an anxiety filled wait as the family battled with paperwork in South Africa. There was a touching moment at Umvutshwa when the former Soccer Star of the Year finalist’s son was given a turn to speak. Mlungisi, a budding chubby rugby player said his father wanted him to play football but was comfortable with him playing any sport as it donned that his body was not suitable for soccer.
“He wanted me to play football but for obvious reasons I could not, I took rugby,” said the former Prince Edward rugby player.
Former teammates at Black Rhinos from Harare failed to attend after the burial date stayed uncertain for a while.
Several former players attended the burial among them Bulawayo City vice chairman, Zenzo Moyo, general manager Sikhumbuzo Ndebele who played with Mguni in the 1993 Highlanders side and was a role model brother in New Magwegwe where both grew up, Mayfield Daka, Gift Lunga (Jnr), Lindani Kurairwa, Douglas Mloyi, Cassius Siziba, Itai Masawi, founding Black Rhinos goalkeeper Charles Ndebele, Colsen Mabeza and Zulu.
Kurairwa, Masawi and Siziba played with Mguni at Shu Shine Wolves. Masawi and Siziba moved with Mguni to Black Rhinos at the alleged instigation of their former coach at Bosso Roy Barreto. Siziba, who like Masawi was a childhood friend of the departed midfield kingpin also spoke of their escapades as young men after opting to rent a room outside barracks so that they could enjoy freedom.
Follow on Twitter @lovdube
Online Reporter