peterSimba Jemwa, Sunday Life Reporter
MOST of us consider ourselves to be committed fans who spend our hard-earned money travelling home and away to support our teams. Our weekends are dedicated to football, while our weekdays are spent keeping up to date with the latest on the club we so dearly love. Football, football, football; it’s a way of life!
However, for those of us who consider ourselves to be the aforementioned, there is always a select few who take it one step further.
Super fans, as they are more commonly known, outdo the normal fan by some distance.
In addition to travelling home and away, and even when they don’t, they tend to do it with the club’s crest inked all over them, that same crest engraved upon their head somewhere, while also having the name of “Mr or Mrs” insert club name here after legally changing it in a moment of madness. And some turn their homes into shrines to honour their favourite football club.
It is the latter patch that Lister Dube nee Ndlovu chose to take to show her undying and perhaps even unrivalled love for Highlanders Football Club. A rural home for that matter!
Gogo MaNdlovu is one such fan — her home in Natisa, Kezi is emblazoned with two Highlanders’ crests on either side of the gate, while a flag flies high above, flattering unapologetically for Amahlolanyama, Umantengwane!
The 65-year-old could now easily be widely recognised as Highlander’s biggest fan and yet has never attended a single football match featuring her beloved club or any football club for that matter — she has only ever watched Bosso play on television and is still to attend that first match at Emagumeni aka Barbourfields Stadium.
But this is the unbridled passion that this Makokoba native who grew up at Kusile Flats watching the Ndlovu brothers do their thing. Now she is a mother of two — a daughter and a son — and also a grandmother to six grandchildren. But she has nine more from the extended family.
“Children support the club because I support the club but they could swing whichever way they choose anytime they choose. My husband, Herbert Sola is also a Bosso fan and even played darts for Highlanders with the likes of Peter Dube and the late Earnest “Maphepha” Sibanda at the clubhouse. I would love to have my whole home painted in Bosso colours, but now I am retired and my children who are in South Africa built the homestead and chose the colours themselves.
“I love this club so much that sometimes I lose my appetite when Bosso loses but I am always hopeful that next time we’ll do well. I wish I could more Bosso regalia to show how much I love this team. Even my pots are painted Bosso Highlanders. My donkey-driven cart is also emblazoned with ‘Bosso club, siyinqaba ngenkani’ on the back.”
Asked about moving back to the city, she said: “I don’t like the urban setting. I love being in the rural areas. Sometimes I go to town but I don’t even sleep there although I have a house in Emakhandeni. Plus, I can farm and keep my animals at my homestead.” @RealSimbaJemwa
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