Former Bosso vice-chair blames members for club’s woes by Ngqwele Dube | Sunday, Nov 2, 2014 | 134 views FORMER Highlanders vice-chairman Sikhanyiso Moyo has blamed lethargic members for the club’s woes as the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League team has gone on a downward spiral, losing all their last five games. Moyo said members were content using annual general meetings as talk shows instead of crafting policy and coming up with binding resolutions. He said leaving everything in the hands of the executive and just relying on the club’s constitution to give direction to the elected officials had resulted in the slide. Highlander sit on seventh position in the league after a spectacular fall in form that has seen a promising season unravel in front of them. While the season kicked off on a high note for the club with pundits touting Bosso as one of the favourites to win the title, five losses on the trot has instead seen them being labelled relegation candidates. Moyo said the obtaining problems could not be blamed on the executive as they have been manifesting in the club for the past decade. He said strong, engaging members are the only ones who can change what is happening at Highlanders through resolutions crafted at AGMs. “I have attended AGMs for over 15 years now and we have always had the same problem, which is that people come in to argue about previous minutes only and discuss petty issues but fail to make binding resolutions that become policy and are followed to the letter by future executives that would be voted into office. “If you look at the agendas of these AGMs they are similar, it is the reading of the minutes of the previous AGM, followed by the chairman’s report and treasurer’s report which are then debated but with no real substance and then the meeting ends. This has left those elected to the executive to decide how to run the club as they see fit,” said Moyo. He said he was surprised why for the past decade Highlanders members had changed executive members during every election, adding this was caused by a fall in the team’s performance in the year preceding elections. He cited the year 2008, with Ernest “Maphepha” Sibanda in charge, Highlanders closed the year on position eight and the following year elections for chairman were held with a new executive led by Themba Ndlela being put in office. Bosso had won the league in 2006 and came second in 2007. The club steered to a fourth place finish in the same year (2009) that Ndlela took over, while the following year it was third before slumping to a seventh place finish in 2011 and Ndlela lost the 2012 election to Peter Dube. After Dube’s takeover, the team finished second in two consecutive seasons but this year it looks like a top four finish is unlikely and with elections pending next January, members may only look at this year’s club performance and boot out Dube from office. “Another disquieting issue that is a direct offshoot of members’ failure to come up with resolutions at AGMs is the fact that an incoming chairman seems to be intent on overhauling the efforts and work of the previous executive. It seems there is a tendency to wage war against the previous executive when the incoming committee should be building on top of what the previous chairman would have done or built. “If there were clear resolutions passed at AGMs this would never be the trend and it’s one of the most retrogressive tendencies obtaining at Bosso at the moment,” said Moyo. He said it was time for the custodians of Bosso, the board, to stand up and act as they know the club’s traditions that have been the hallmark of Highlanders and has guided them to previous success. Moyo said the rising indiscipline at the club was due to signing of players from “everywhere” instead of looking at the juniors that have been groomed at Highlanders and know the club’s culture. He said the intense pressure heaped on the technical team and executive to win the league could have backfired as they picked players they thought would bring instant success but it was not to be. Moyo said he was worried by the fact that the club’s past three coaches, Mohamed Fathi, Mkhuphali Masuku and Kelvin Kaindu did not put much focus on junior teams, failing to attend games played by the youngsters something that led to Highlanders buying overpriced players this year. “Maybe the coach for the Under-19 side should be made the assistant coach of the senior team so that there is a link between the junior and senior teams to ensure the seamless progression of players from the former to the latter. “I think it is ridiculous that a team of Highlanders’ stature should have a player owned by a third party but it happened this year and with binding resolutions such a thing would never have been heard of at the club,” he said. He queried why there was a swell in the number of members when it is time for voting but in ordinary AGMs members would be very few when it is the time their input is needed. Moyo said it would be sad if the current executive failed to hire a coach before elections because their term is still running and whatever decisions they make should be binding to future executives, adding that it would be a dereliction of duty on their part. “Why should they wait? When will the new coach get the time to identify players and bring them on board? We will be watching other teams snapping up players we want while waiting for the elections. It would be disastrous,” he said.
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 12:25:10 +0000
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