Who the cap fit!
...leadership fissures in the region
I“And who the cap fit, let them wear it” – Bob Marley N the context of today’s subject, I find these words by Bob Marley very profound! This to me speaks volumes to our football’s general failure to produce quality leaders or to see the ascension of young people to leadership positions. am particularly aggrieved at the fact that football leaders from this region have been failed by football so to speak and have been maligned or abused by their very own. I mean we have produced administrators like Delma Lupepe, Gift Banda, Omega Sibanda, Chris Sibanda, Martin Mabvira, Vincent Pamire, Ndumiso Gumede, Pater Dube, Roger Muhlwa, Colonel James Mangwana-Tshuma, Kenny Ndebele and all of them come from this part of the country. But if we look at their tenures individually, we will notice that they were not without incident and more often than not, this was because of a conscious effort by local “football people” not to support these gentlemen.
These gentlemen represented us with dignity and we failed to respect and honour them with the same. And this has become a standard in our football — we bring down anyone from our own backyard if they have not been propped up by so and so or are believed to belong to so and so. This must come to an end!
This part of the country has capable administrators but they will only be effective if we have their back to support their initiatives and even their candidature when need be. It’s okay to have differing opinions, but this does not make us enemies. We must learn to agree to disagree — only then will we be able to stand strong as a region and stop complaining about how marginalised we are. We have marginalised ourselves if truth be told. We have allowed our egos to take precedent and his has damaged whatever bargaining power we have a s block and a region.
And then we have these banal questions coming out of the region whenever a young person wants to vie for office in football — we will not be led by a young man! What does he know? What can he tell us?
Yet, this region witnessed the late Gumede assume the Highlanders chairmanship at 36! So, what it means is that the rules only apply to certain individuals? Is this progressive? If “Gums” chaired Bosso at 36, why can’t so and so? Why can we not have the button passed down from one generation to the next to keep things fresh within our football institutions?
As a result of these problems with passing the baton, you will find our mentors competing with us and more often than not, this leads to enmity between them and their young charges. Our mentors don’t want to move on and eventually because I have the same ambitions, we end up competing for the same positions and that often does not end well! The old must become confident in us and allow us to ascend. Like dancers, we must know when to leave the stage!
We also need to own up to issues that make mountains out of mole hills. In my view, it’s okay to fight but what is not okay to make the fight personal to such an extent that people stop talking to each other. How is this good for football? And for this reason, I think an indaba is now due in this part of the country. An indaba where we will fight and shout at each other but walk out with one vision for the growth of the game in the region.
We are one big family and all we have to do now is become one big happy family and we must learn to help each other. Nothing is worth losing a friend over — whenever I fight with a friend, I want to be able to wake up in the middle of the night and call him to apologise and invite him for a braai the following morning. Football is what we all love and if we are truthful about this love, then we must understand that it’s team effort. It takes 11 players to grind out a result!
We must become united like a football team should be! Romans 12:9: Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.