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Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter 

The late former Bulawayo town clerk Mike Ndubiwa was instrumental in persuading Highlanders and Zimbabwe Saints to drop their tribally linked names.

Ndubiwa, who died at Mater Dei Hospital in Bulawayo on Tuesday morning, was summoned to a meeting by the late former Vice-President Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo together with the Bosso and Zimbabwe Saints leadership where the two clubs were asked to change their names.

Bosso then were known as Matabeleland Highlanders, while Chikwata Mashonaland United.

When the late Father Zimbabwe returned from prison in 1975, he, along with other nationalists such as the late Herbert Ushewokunze, was perturbed that tribalism was taking hold in most spheres of life, including football.

He found it disgusting that some people in Bulawayo were divided between Matabeleland Highlanders and Mashonaland United.

At the centre of the friction was that Matabeleland Highlanders were viewed as a team for Ndebeles and Mashonaland United was for Shonas.

The rivalry between the two teams was so fierce that violent clashes between the two teams’ supporters always occurred before and after their matches.

Ndubiwa was also a member of the 1995 All-Africa Games local organising committee.

His son, Horace, is also an astute administrator, who served as Highlanders’ secretary and chairman of the club’s basketball team.

He recently resigned from the Bulawayo City FC management team.