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Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
FORMER Highlanders’ chairman and team manager Ernest ‘Maphepha’ Sibanda has been hospitalised at a private institution in Bulawayo after his sugar levels fluctuated, but his family is optimistic he will be discharged soon.

According to his sister Beauty, doctors informed them that they were monitoring the 63-year-old former Warriors’ manager’s condition to determine if they can make changes to his medication.

“My brother is in hospital now; he might be out of hospital soon, they are trying to monitor to see if they can change his medication, (but) he is getting better,” Beauty said.

She said the family was concerned by social media speculation that the Bosso legend had died, which she said is un-African to claim someone had passed away when they are still alive.

“He is very much alive; I am just from seeing him now. If God takes him away from us, it would have happened, but when I saw him, he was alive. We have seen on social media people claiming that he had died; we are worried as a family because he is alive,” she said.

A former Highlanders’ striker during his early playing days, Sibanda was the Bosso team manager when they won four titles in a row from the 1998/1999 season to 2002.

Rahman Gumbo and Eddie May were the coaches of that unstoppable Highlanders’ team.

When Bosso won those four championships on the trot, Sibanda was famous for bouncing the ball on the centre circle just before kick-off, something he did at every match that Highlanders played at Barbourfields Stadium.

He was club chairman when Highlanders won their last championship in 2006, with another Bosso son Methembe Ndlovu as coach.

Sibanda is currently a board member of Bulawayo City FC, a similar role he held at the now defunct Bantu Rovers. — @Mdawini_29