THE push to have Highlanders Football Club hold its annual general meeting (AGM) at the end of this month is gaining momentum with reports that about 70 members have signed the petition which seeks to amend Section 16 of the constitution.
SUKOLUHLE MTHETHWA/ THANDIWE MOYO According to Article 16 of the Bosso constitution, the club is expected to hold its elections in January.
The AGM is usually held at the team’s Club House along Masotsha Ndlovu Avenue every January, but there are indications that some members of the club are blaming Highlanders woes on that.
Bosso life member Leroy Maplanka is behind the petition.
Maplanka yesterday told Southern Eye Sport that he had received a good response from members who agree to the notion.
“So far we have accumulated close to 70 signatures and I have since received some calls from Gwanda and Filabusi with people asking us how they can access the petition,” he said.
“Article 16 says elections should be held in January. But because of the problems that we have seen accruing because of the arrangement, we have decided as members of the club to move a motion to amend the constitution so that we have elections to be held at the end of the football season.”
He said they wanted the AGM to be held this month.
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“The current arrangement doesn’t give the incoming executive enough time to mobilise players for the season and to look for the personnel,” he said.
“We want the AGM to be at the end of the football season which is end of November, so that the newly-elected executive will have plenty of time to look for the players they want. We don’t care who comes. None of the members in this drive is contesting for any position.”
Maplanka said they believed that if the old executive selected a coach it might be a problem when a new executive comes in.
“You find that when elections are done in January the old executive would have been forced to hire coaches,” Maplanka continued. “They hire the coach that they want, but when a new executive comes in, they might not want that coach.
If we get 100 members, we will forward the petition to the executive. Then they are obliged by the constitutional provisions to call a meeting within seven days.
“To amend the constitution, we must be two-thirds. But its not saying two-thirds of the entire membership of the institution, it says two-thirds of those in attendance at that particular special general meeting.”
He said they came up with the idea following a discussion with some of the club’s members.
“We were discussing with some members of the club about the unceremonious departure of the coach (Kelvin Kaindu),” he said.
“We were asking ourselves what the problem was. We discovered that maybe it was because of the constitution which needed to be corrected so that we don’t have such a problem in future.”
On the departure of former coach Kaindu who was employed by former chairman Themba Ndlela, Maplanka said: “It could be one of the reasons (that he was employed by a previous executive). We are not ruling out that possibility.
“From the way we look at things, it could be one of the reasons. You hear a board member commenting in the media saying that it was long overdue for Kaindu to leave — this could be a sign that behind the scenes there were a lot of things going on.”
Maplanka continued: “Some people are saying I want to get rid of the executive, all we are saying is we want to correct the situation. I want to make this very clear, none of the people who are moving this petition are campaigning for any position lest people are told that we want certain posts.”
Highlanders have been reduced to a mediocre side that has seen them drop from the top of the log in the first half of the season to seventh position at the moment.
Mark Mathe, who took over from Kaindu after his departure, has won one match in five games and that was the 2-1 victory against relegated Chiredzi.
Mathe not only lost our on a top-four finish which could have qualified the team for the Mbada Diamond Cup, but failed to secure a place in the final of the Chibuku Super Cup.
