via Accept VP Mnangagwa, Highlanders urged – NewZimbabwe 23 /05/2015
HIGHLANDERS CEO Ndumiso Gumede has appealed for calm among the club’s fans who are restless over Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s impending visit to the football club.
Mnangagwa is set to preside over the handover of a new bus acquired by the popular football club with the assistance of its chief benefactor Tshinga Dube.
Dube is eyeing the Makokoba parliamentary seat under Zanu PF in the June 10 by-elections.
Mnangagwa, on his part, is alleged to be among the chief architects of the massacre of an estimated 20,000 civilians in Matebeleland and Midlands in the early 1980s in what is now widely known as the Gukurahundi period.
Highlanders draw massive support from the two regions.
Bosso fans took to social media this past week to blast the choice of Mnangagwa as guest with some protesting what they viewed as an attempt by Dube to piggyback on the club’s popularity in the region to win votes.
But responding to the complaints, Gumede insisted the club’s fans should live with the fact that Mnangagwa was the country’s second in charge.
“Whether people like it or they don’t like it, particularly the Facebook people, Cde Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa is our Vice President,” Gumede said, in an exclusive interview with Newzimbabwe.com.
“He is not the Vice President of Masvingo or Gweru. He is the Vice President of Zimbabwe and as citizens of Zimbabwe, we must learn to accept authority as written in the Bible that the people that are made as your rulers are appointed in one way or the other by the Almighty.”
Agitated Bosso fans say Mnangagwa’s involvement with an institution that draws massive support from the Gukurahundi affected region evokes memories of the atrocities.
But Gumede had a ready response to them.
“Sports is supposed to unify people and not to accentuate divisions,” he said.
“Whatever happened in the past, if the visit by Mnangagwa begins to heal the wounds, then Highlanders must be applauded for providing the platform for those wounds to be healed.”
The 2013 Mbada Diamonds Cup winners used the proceeds from the lucrative knock-out competition towards the bus while Dube weighed in with nearly half the sum through what Gumede said were his vast business contacts.
The former ZIFA Vice President dismissed claims Dube’s donation towards the bus acquisition days before the by-elections was going to compromise the integrity of a club.
“The important thing is at every AGM people have demanded to see the bus which we had promised and even accused us of embezzling the funds, now the bus is here, it is an issue.
“As Highlanders Football Club, to us it’s neither here nor there…we are not worried whether Dube is voted for or not but we know that there are many, many occasions that Dube has been a benefactor of Highlanders.
“These are small minded people who do not know the real history of Highlanders.”
Gumede said club fans must stop being fixated with the source of the bus, adding, “ngeSiNdebele bekuthiwa inkomokazi yakho ingamitha kasibuzi ukuthi inkunzi ngeyanga. Uyathaba ukuthi inkomokazi yami imithi izangizalela ithole (In our Ndebele culture, you do not demand to see the bull which would have impregnated your heifer. You only celebrate the impending birth of a calf).”
COMMENTS
Gumede don’t misquoute the bible or thing people are stupid, you cannot call such blatant rigging of country elections and the torture of people in rural areas in order to mantain power for some lunatics like mnangagwa a God’s plan. Moreover these guys are playing bread politics, how can a VP preside over a function to hand over a team bus – oh my africa we are yet to catch a wake up.
They assume that by donating a bus for that matter, will cleanse them from the crimes they committed. Another one has the audacity of insulting the people with a donation of two sawing machines.
trading a bus for thousands of lives. How low can you go
The bus was probably funded by looted money made available to try and get votes for the ZANU-PF looters. Follow the paper trail of the donation and it would come from the looted diamonds – a small price to pay for yet another election gimmick.
If he is indeed VP of the country then why he is coming to the presentation of a mere bus. Why stoop so low unless there is a hidden agenda?
These are the same people this VP wanted to wipe off now he wants to see them get a bus.
He must first make a public apology to the people of the region. Gums stay out of this…
I would think the VP should be doing more important things like negotiating and signing “mega” deals with the Russians and Chinese rather than attend the unveiling of a bus. If he was a known Highlanders supporter it would make sense. I think the VP has a lot more pressing issues. Or as they say those who do not understand their jobs will concentrate on trivialities.