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Lovemore Dube, Special Correspondent
ZIMBABWE is reeling as the news of Ndumiso Gumede’s death spreads like a wildfire.

Gumede died in Bulawayo on Wednesday afternoon at the age of 76.

A diabetic and hypertension patient, who had managed the two conditions for years, Gumede died a day after he had been rushed to Mpilo Central Hospital with complications.

He was reluctant to be taken to Mpilo insisting he wanted to go to Inyathi, his rural home, to be with his mother. Both his parents were buried there in a community where the Gumedes are revered for their humility, contribution to education and the community in general.

Gumede has been hailed as a doyen of football administration, cultural ambassador, great teacher, entertainer, socialite and community builder through his voluntary services with non-governmental organisations.

Gumede was more than a news source to me, as he embodied all life values one can ever wish to be engrained with.
He had a passion for the beautiful game, education, culture, entertainment sanctity of life. He also dreamt of equality, a very scarce commodity among humans.

Gumede was a man of all seasons, rich and poor people were all his best friends, as he looked at humans as equals, hence you could find him at places where men of his stature needed protection or not be there at all.

But the humble Gumede would be on the sidelines of dusty patches with the common man, watching football or some dance group. When duty called, he would dress up and gather the right pieces of etiquette to display for his relevant audience and still give a glimpse of the streetwise man of great appeal to many Zimbabweans.

He was no ordinary man. A gentleman of great enthusiasm and wisdom, a fountain of knowledge on so many fields that few mistake him for some former Ndebele, English or History teacher.

A graduate of Gweru Teachers’ College in 1968, he was a mathematics and science major and his former pupils at Highfield Secondary and Mzilikazi Secondary schools in Harare and Bulawayo testify of a great educator, whose products are all over the world.

I had known Gumede for almost 40 years and I mourn the passing away of a great actor I watched on the movie Yellow Card; a great entertainer I listened to on the old Radio 2 when I’d stop everything in the evenings to listen to Sakhelene Zinini where he featured with the likes of Agrippa “Fanyana” Mguni.

They were so good that they sounded like it was in real life and came close to going to Mbarila Train Station in Hwange when one of their episodes was about a train ride up north.

I celebrate a hero who left tangibles as part of his football legacy at both Highlanders FC and Zifa.

Today I mourn the passing of an all-weather friend, who never took his detractors seriously, but embraced them like his besties.

He wanted better for our sport and unity of purpose. Many insulted him by day, but courted him by night.

I met Gumede in my early teens at a distance at Highlanders’ matches and would marvel at a man who spoke good isiNdebele and English, and was always surrounded by people keen to hear his mind or wit.

As a footballer’s son, my interest took a new dimension when I heard that he was at the same school with my father, a friend Gumede mourned on this day in 2015 when he passed away.

The legendary administrator was the Harare club representative in 1974 and so often mingled with visiting Bosso fans and players, and among them was my father Nehemiah Dube, a former right-back of the club between 1971 and 1974 in a career blighted by injuries.

So Gumede’s successes at Bosso and Zifa touched my heart and soon I would later learn that one of my cousins is married to his youngest sister Cephe, and that cemented our relationship in life and sport.

He became my number two critic after my father in whatever I wrote about football. Through that relationship, I learnt a lot about sports administration; its dynamics and politics, how to stay afloat as a neutral and look at the bigger picture of the relationship of Chronicle/Sunday News and Bosso/Zifa. This is what he wanted to see promoted.

He always emphasised that no administrator fights objective journalists, who are the eyes and ears of society. He would say we should write whatever we want as media as long as it was in the public interest and had facts with all voices added to the story.

A winner with Zifa, helping it acquire properties in the early 1980s, his acumen showed at Highlanders with the acquisition of the Highlanders clubhouse, previously Queens Bowling Club, Hotel California (Luveve camping house) and offices at 50 Robert Mugabe Way.

His visionary leadership was decades ahead of the Fifa Club Licensing. He felt the club needed a professional outlook, have assets to leverage the business brand always envisaged at Highlanders. With his vision, Bosso dominated national junior teams and the Warriors.

The Natbrew Soccer Stars Calendar was incomplete without a Highlanders’ player and with that the world was introduced to gems such as Madinda Ndlovu, Willard Khumalo, Peter Nkomo, Douglas Mloyi, Mercedes Sibanda, Alexander Maseko, Adam Ndlovu and his brother Peter.

With Harare teams dominating silverware after Ziscosteel and Zimbabwe Saints’ sparkle of 1977 and 1978, which saw the Chibuku Trophy, Castle Cup and league title stay across the Sanyati River, it needed his charisma to break the jinx.

In the first year of Independence, he presided over a Highlanders’ side that won the Chibuku Trophy by thumping Rio Tinto 4-0, and the Heroes Cup (3-2 over Dynamos). So hot was his side that it even reached the Rothmans Shield final, which it lost to Caps Rovers, which later changed to United.

Another piece of silverware would follow in 1984 in what is regarded as one of the best cup finals in domestic football; the Chibuku Trophy encounter against Dynamos.

Madinda and Khumalo were on target, with Dynamos pulling one back through Douglas Chinyoka, who passed away recently. Gumede also had good public relations. In 1980 he asked for cover from Zimbabwe Saints in the form of Gibson Homela and Max Tshuma when his side entertained Bata Bullets from Malawi.

In the same year, he took former Rhodesia national team trialists David Khumalo and Rodrick Simwanza to Zambia on an emotional tour, the first by the club after the UDI of 1965. Prior to that, Bosso and Wankie used to participate in the Stanley and Livingstone Cup in Livingstone, Zambia.

“That was an emotional tour, meeting some Zimbabweans who had stayed behind after the war and some still winding up their business there. They were so happy to see a club from back home that they had last seen in the 1960s,” Gumede would tell me about this several times.

He also took Highlanders to Swaziland and South Africa in 1985. Success is a well cut out process with meticulous planning and investment in. During his tenure as Bosso chairman, a vibrant junior policy existed and they were as shrewd as Silas Ndlovu (1973-76 Bosso coach) when it came to market business.

Tanny Banda, Tobias Mudyambanje, the great Tito Paketh, Amini Soma-Phiri, Cephas Sibanda, Simon Ncube and David Phiri arrived to add a different dimension to the club and Bosso swept all silverware in the land except the title in 1986. But that was the foundation for the unique league and cup double achieved in 1990.

With the likes of Landcart Gumpo, Jahalamajaha Dlamini, Enock Mangena and Shadreck Sibanda, Gumede broke new ground for the club when Highlanders toured Europe with the juniors going to Aberdeen, Scotland, and seniors to Germany, resulting in three legends Khumalo, Madinda and Paketh playing abroad from 1989-1991.

He would leave Highlanders and teaching and move to Harare as a training officer at Old Mutual.

He had been frustrated in teaching when he was denied promotion to be deputy headmaster at Ihlathi High under a cloud.

A similar thing had also happened to him at Zifa when he sought office at the expiry of his committee member term in the first executive after John Madzima’s Rhodesia National Football League, he was left out in the cold in unclear circumstances.

His second term as chairman at Highlanders came when Malcom King stepped down, Gumede was reluctant, but he was persuaded by the late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo to take the position.

Feeling bitter with how he had been treated at Zifa in 1982, Gumede did not want anything to do with football. Many emissaries were sent to speak to him about saving Highlanders who were on the decline, but he was adamant that he was happy away from the crowds.

Gumede would leave for Botswana in 1991 where he stayed up to 1998.

Once again football needed a good leader, an organiser with charisma and servant leadership as major attributes.
He landed the secretary-general job at Zifa and served football with distinction.

As a man who knew where the future of the game lies, in 2001 he introduced the Chompkins Just Play Tournament for Under-15s and among the stars of that venture were Evans Gwekwerere (Dynamos) and Bryan Moyo, who played for Hwange.

As football administration is never meant to be a permanent home for anyone, Gumede left Zifa to stay at his Inyathi home.

But as always football needed him and When Cuthbert Dube wanted an honest and knowledgeable running mate for the 2010 Zifa elections, he did not look beyond eKopa in Inyathi.

It took a lot of persuasion to have him back in football and Chronicle Sport would later work with him on Asiagate investigations, which made him lose a number of friends, some of who dismissed them as a tribal card.

He again quit football administration after serving as Zifa vice-president only to be invited to become Highlanders’ chief executive officer in 2014.

At the time of his death, Gumede was among the resource persons I was working with on documentaries of former footballers.

He had assisted me with Buff Football in George Shaya’s documentary and we were in the middle of the Tymon Mabaleka documentary due for release in the first quarter of next year. Being part of many that advocated for celebrating our heroes while they are still alive, in the past three months, I found myself in gatherings where Gumede was centre stage.

The first in September held at City Pool Basketball Courts run by Madinda Ndlovu, was funded by Nodumo Nyathi. From the blue, I was asked to organise a braai for Madinda and Gumede with a few of the old man’s friends.

What a day it was.

At the beginning of December one of my brothers said he would love to be with Gumede and his ex-teacher at Christian Brothers College Nivathi Songo and a few other gentlemen.

Gumede was there, his usual bubbly self and we had fun at koMazinyane with Zenzo Madonko and former Highlanders’ secretary and chairman, who is now a board member, Peter Dube. On December 22, I arrived late at an appreciation party for Gumede organised by club members, among them Nyathi, Sibekiwe Ndlovu, Ray Bhebhe, Vulindlela Sibanda and Kholiwe Ncube.

In no time I was part of the party at times running errands to get ice and stuff.

We were family and he treated me as his son, friend and journalist, and accorded me great respect.

Zimbabwe football, which appears to be at a crossroads and in need of real men for salvation, is much poorer without a leader of Ndumiso Emmanuel Gumede’s stature.

We turned to him in times of joy and sorry, when it appeared not all was going well at Bosso and Zifa, he was a telephone call away.

Sokhela, Mkhabazeli, wena webuKhosini bakoGumede sodedelaphi, usukhotheme.

Since legends don’t die, rest easy Qhawe lamaQhawe, hoping the Hall of Fame initiative will be introduced soon and we paste a big picture of you in there.