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Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter
YOU were charged for alleged embezzlement of funds from the sale of striker Obidiah Tarumbwa to Belgium and accepted the charge for the sake of peace at Highlanders.

You were given a three-year sanction and served it without breaching any conditions that were a part of your suspension.

One of the conditions of your sanction was that you should not participate in any sporting activities using the club’s name and you were forced to leave the Highlanders Darts Club and joined Archers Darts Club because you loved sport and couldn’t just be idle.

During that period, you remained loyal to Highlanders FC, attending the team’s matches, being saddened by every loss and celebrating every successful outing.

After serving your punishment, you were approached by some members to consider running for the Bosso chairmanship in 2015.

Conspiracy theories from within the Highlanders’ leadership circles emerged and you were deemed not to have been rehabilitated enough and your presence among the Highlanders’ leadership would scare away potential sponsors since no corporate would want to pour any money into a club with a tainted individual.

You were eventually barred despite some board members expressing reservations.

“Where have you heard that; where is it written? Sibanda was forgiven for his crime so what wrong has he done now? I personally don’t know of such a provision, so if ever he wants to contest for any post, I believe he’s free to do so and members will either accept or reject him,” the then board secretary Jimmy Ncube, who is now club patron, told Chronicle Sport in 2015.

It was not to be. Those bent on shutting you out dug in.

Again in 2018, members approached you to run for office.

You humbled yourself Maphepha and wrote an appeal letter to the club explaining how you had served with aplomb as a player, manager and chairman.

“I hereby appeal to the club to grant me complete rehabilitation status allowing me to participate in all activities of the club, including administration and management. I have respectfully and dutifully served and abided by the club’s verdict and decision on my case since it was meted out. All my life I have given myself to Highlanders as an institution, as a player, manager and chairman. As such, I am still prepared to plough back my experience to the club.

“My whole life is inextricably tied to Highlanders, a significant number of current members, be they life or ordinary, have approached me, urging to me to apply for the complete rehabilitation status in the club so as to enable me to enter the race for the post of chairman in the club’s pending election. It is my belief that in the process of democracy, it is critical to provide the electorate with options of choice in terms of candidates.

“Thus, if cleared to enter the race, I will definitely broaden the choice options and perhaps avoid a scenario where only (one) candidate is available for a critical position. Through the growth and development that the club has afforded me since I joined as a player, I want to assure the board that my appeal is out of my own volition and conscience and nothing else as I am not anybody’s person when it comes to my commitment to Highlanders,” you wrote in the letter to club’s board.

The board met and voted to bar you from contesting.

To show that those against your candidature were just being personal, they pointed out that you held a position at Bantu Rovers, a team that was not in direct competition with Highlanders since it was in Division One.

Of course, Bosso 90 were also in Division One and hence in direct competition with Bantu Rovers, but why was Samuel Sibanda, who was chairman of Amagagasi, a team that was also in Division One, allowed to stand for the committee member’s post?

Those against you were willing to do anything and everything to make sure you were nowhere near the club’s offices in Robert Mugabe Way.

Your campaign manager Fiso Siziba probably summed it up soon after you were barred from contesting when he told Chronicle Sport that you had been prejudiced and your rights as a member had been trampled on by people with vendettas.

Siziba said blocking you was clearly meant to denigrate your person and soil your public standing.

Shame to all those who persecuted you for their own selfish agendas.

I just wonder, as your coffin is lowered down at Lady Stanley Cemetery today, what your persecutors will be saying to themselves.
Rest easy topi!