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Ndumiso Gumede

Kusile Madlela, Sports Reporter
HIGHLANDERS Football Club chief executive officer Ndumiso Gumede was on Sunday involved in an embarrassing altercation with a 23-year-old Bulawayo woman who claimed that the veteran football administrator was failing to take care of a four-month-old child he allegedly sired with her.

The incident happened just after 9PM at the Highlanders Clubhouse, a few hours after Bosso lost a league match to Caps United at Barbourfields Stadium.

Gumede, 69, yesterday declined to speak on the matter when contacted for comment.

“I’m a football person and everyone must understand that I don’t have time to entertain matters outside of the sporting discipline.

“I can talk to anyone who wants to talk football issues but as for non-football associated things, I don’t have any room for that,” he said.

Witnesses said the incident happened in full view of a few club patrons who were still drowning their sorrows after the morale-sapping defeat.

“This lady who was clad in Highlanders colours, arrived in the company of her friends and went straight to Gumede who usually sits in a corner at the bar,” said the witness.

The witness said on getting to Gumede, the football administrator offered to buy her a pint of beer which she flatly refused. “We were all left dumbfounded when the young lady screamed at the top of her voice saying, ‘you want to buy me beer, I don’t want this pint, what I want is money to buy milk for your four-month-old baby that you have with me. Have you forgotten that you once slept with me?’. It was really an embarrassing situation,” said the witness.

Moments later, said the witness, the young lady banged a bottle of beer on top of the bar table and that is when Gumede held her by the neck and forcibly pushed her towards the exit.

“Some people then restrained Gumede while others pushed the young lady out of the bar but she seemed unperturbed as she kept on ranting that she indeed has a child with Gumede.

“We could hear her saying that she was born in 1992 and would approach the courts for maintenance recourse against Gumede, ” said the source.