Zimpapers Logo

Limukani Ncube The Sober Voice
“William Caxton, the first English printer, gave the earliest version of the above saying in “Aesope” (1484), his translation of Aesop’s fables: “He that hath ben ones begyled by somme other ought to kepe hym wel fro(m) the same.”

Centuries later, English novelist Robert Surtees referred to the saying in “Mr Sponge’s Sporting Tour” (1853) with “(He) had been bit once, and he was not going to give Mr. Sponge a second chance.”

The exact wording of the saying was recorded later in “Folk Phrases of Four Counties” (1894) by GG Northall and was repeated by, among others, the English novelist Joseph Conrad (1920, “The Rescue”), the novelist Aldous Huxley (1928, “Point Counter Point”), and the novelist Wyndham Lewis (1930, “The Apes of God”). “Once bitten, twice shy” has been a familiar saying in the twentieth century.” From “Wise Words and Wives’ Tales” by Stuart Flexner and Doris Flexner (Avon Books, New York, 1993).

The adage has since become a cliché, but it is pregnant with meaning and full of lessons. That is a phrase that can be forwarded to Highlanders faithfuls, who go to the last weekend of the Premiership season having lost interest in who becomes champions. It is something unusual, since for the past two years, they have been competing for the title until the final whistle of the season but come 2014, they lost interest with more than half a dozen of games to be played after a poor second half of the season show.

However, those who are entrusted with running the show at Highlanders would look at the past and of course want to forget it in a hurry, but they should ask themselves why it happened when they were in charge.

The players and coaches should also ask themselves why the sudden loss of form and coersion among fans happened during their era.

If I was part of them or part of the leadership at the country’s oldest club I would say the spectacular crumbling that shook everyone, even their bitter enemies, was a sign that it is the present generation that should come up with measures that will take the club forward.

It is the present generation that should, instead of focusing on finger pointing, harness all intellectual minds available and come up with remedies that would make the club conquer in future.

Those who started the club and ran it from 1926 right up to 1980 and years that followed put measures that made the club an envy in the country. Highlanders is the only club with a leadership that is voted into office by card carrying members for a prescribed term.

It has an office for the secretariat and other immovable properties that include a sports club and a camping house, never mind the state of the camping house, the fact is that it is there and usable and can be made modern at any opportune time.

The challenge therefore falls to the present generation to improve what was put down by the founding fathers of the club, to build on the success of the past and prepare the club for the future, and the only way to prepare the club for the future is to make sure that it is run in a modern manner, and all structures and centres of power speak to each other.

Some of the issues might even mean amending the constitution to do away with some provisions that do not serve any purpose in the present day sporting era.

I have always found it hard to understand why there are two centres of power at the club, one that is voted into office by members and is accountable to members for the day-to-day running of the club, which is the executive, and the other party which is somewhat a life honour of board members who we are told are there to give direction and supervise the executive. But the board is not voted into office by members and has no term of office and by default, board members become the real bosses of the club because they see all executive members coming in and they see all of them going out.

Secretary Andrew Tapela came into office and served two terms and according to the club constitution, he is not eligible to contest again for a certain period of time. But he found some board members in office, and he has left them. So in the long run, whose voice is likely to prevail? When things go wrong, who should be blamed?

I raise that because a lot of interesting issues have been raised by board members, in the media for that matter.

Nonetheless, this is not to suggest there is a party that is wrong or responsible for the mess the club found itself in, but it would appear the whole structure needs a re-look, without necessarily looking at the faces of people who occupy those positions.

There have been stories of a group of disgruntled members going around with a petition sourcing for signatures from card carrying members to call for an early annual general meeting so that there is ample time for who ever is voted into office to prepare the club for the new season.

This is against a background which is provided for by the constitution that the annual general meeting would be held on the last Sunday of January and when there are elections, they should be held on the first Sunday of February.

The petition guys have a point by the way, but perhaps it is the manner in which they have gone about their business that has raffled feathers, and they are unlikely to succeed because the majority of people are afraid of creating a precedent of a “culture of petitions”, and who knows, this could develop to a “culture of vote of no confidence”.

We have seen such incidents in other clubs and such maneuvers are always at the mercy of the political economy, so to speak. However, the petition guys can still go to the annual general meeting at the end of January and raise a motion to amend the constitution to move the dates for that important meeting forward, but there will also be challenges, one of them being that the annual general meeting should be held when club finances for the year have been audited.

One of the challenges the club system of governance has faced is that it is egocentric. When someone is canvassing for support to occupy what ever position, they come up with their own manifestos as if they are starting something new.

There is no difference between a politician canvassing for votes in my rural home in Filabusi and someone wanting to be chairman of the club because they all make promises, no matter how wild they sound at times.

What this means therefore is that there is no continuity at the club, there is no club vision, targets or goals that are set by members for a certain period, which is the reason the club found itself scrounging for players in recent years.

In the modern era, organisations have their own vision and goals and then they look for candidates who are capable of achieving the set goals, if the office bearers are able to come up with other ideas and initiatives, the better, but the core of the agenda remains unchanged.

You will recall dear reader that when Ernest “Maphepha” Sibanda was chairman, he hosted a colourful function for the groundbreaking ceremony to renovate the club offices.

A few bricks were stacked at the offices, but when his term of office ended, that was the last we heard about it, and there are many projects started by some chairmen and ignored by new executives because there is no blue print for the club.

It would be folly to debate about the performance of the club this season, but what club members can do is to plan for the future and be alert to avoid making the same mistakes that made the club a laughing stock in recent months.

l For comments and contributions email [email protected]. You can also follow this writer on facebook and twitter.