Online Reporter
Lovemore Dube
Zimpapers Sports Hub
FORMER Highlanders chairman Roger Muhlwa has turned the spotlight back on Bosso members, saying the club’s problems start at the ballot box and not in the dressing room.
Speaking on Monday, Muhlwa said supporters can’t keep complaining about leadership failures when they are the same people who vote executives into office and then disappear when it’s time to demand delivery.
“The problem lies with people who elect people into office. They just don’t do enough research on the individuals to have a clue of their past track records elsewhere,” said Muhlwa. “If one has never led or been successful somewhere, to expect that he will do miracles at the club is asking for too much.”
He said Highlanders elections must be treated like a serious recruitment process because members are handing over control of a major institution to individuals who must work as a unit and revive a club that has lost its grip on both football and finances.
Muhlwa warned that Bosso’s voting culture has become too casual, with members choosing familiar faces instead of competent administrators, then expecting quick fixes when the reality is the club is sinking deeper into debt.
“Members must fully interrogate candidates and not vote in friends and drinking mates, but people who will serve the club with distinction. Once they are in office, support them,” he said.
His comments land at a time when Highlanders members and fans are growing impatient over how the club has been run, with debts rising and the board failing to present a convincing business plan to stop the bleeding.
Highlanders are believed to be about US$500 000 in the red, and Muhlwa said that kind of hole can’t be patched by gate takings, especially with turnstile revenue now falling short of what the club needs to service its monthly de-mands.
The frustration, he said, is made worse by the fact that sponsorships now swallow a big chunk of the club’s month-ly expenditure, yet the executive has still not produced a clear route out of the debt trap.
For Muhlwa, the pattern is familiar. When results dip on the pitch, the blame quickly lands on coaches and players, but the real cracks often start in the boardroom where decisions are made, contracts are signed, and money is ei-ther protected or wasted.
“A club is as good as its administration. Often talk is of coaches and players succeeding at club so-and-so, but with-out good and capable leaders nothing can be achieved,” he said.
Muhlwa’s words carry weight in Bosso history. He led the club in the 1998/99 season, laying foundations that High-landers later built on to win three league titles, a run that remains one of the proudest stretches in the club’s modern era.
Those titles came under the late chairman James Mangwana, whose executive included Kennedy Ndebele who is now ZIFA vice-president; the late Shadreck Sibanda as vice-chairman; Isaac Mlilo who served as vice-chairman from 2001 to 2003, Themba Ndlela as treasurer, and Liqhwa Gama and Nhlanhla Dube as committee members.
