BULAWAYO – Highlanders Football Club have a new executive chairman after Johnfat Sibanda defeated incumbent Kenneth Mhlophe in a close election on Sunday.
Just five votes separated the two men after over 300 club members voted at the team’s club house in Bulawayo.
Sibanda, a local farmer and pharmacist, won 154 votes to edge out Mhlophe whose re-election bid netted him 149 votes.
Israel Moyo, the incumbent secretary general, was ousted by Victoria Falls-based Morgan Dube. Dube’s 212 votes dwarfed Moyo’s 91 backers.
Mgcini Mafu polled 176 votes to beat Bheka Sibanda (128) for the third and final post of committee member which was vacated by Wisdom Mabhena, who was ineligible after serving two terms.
Mhlophe will be left wondering how much damage his recent meeting with President Emmerson Mnangagwa, during which he presented the Zanu PF leader with a Highlanders shirt, caused to his re-election bid.
Mhlophe had used the meeting with Mnangagwa to seek the government’s help in acquiring machinery to use at a mining claim granted to the club, which officials believe could be the first step to building a self-sustaining club.
The meeting did not go down well with a large section of the club’s supporters, and that anger could have fuelled Sibanda’s campaign.
The new executive team is expected to immediately start planning for a new Premier Soccer League season set to kick-off soon after the government eased coronavirus lockdown restrictions.
Highlanders relies on gate receipts and corporate sponsorship to run the club, and it remains to be seen how the club will cope without fans in the stands and following NetOne’s withdrawal of its sponsorship deal with the club.
