Highlanders Reveals New Coach
24 December 2014
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FORTUNE MBELE | BONGANI Mafu was officially unveiled yesterday as the new Highlanders head coach for the 2015 Castle Lager Premier Soccer League season at the team’s clubhouse.
He signed a one-year contract from January 1 to December 31 2015 after which his performance would determine whether he will be given another stint with the Bulawayo giants.
Mafu was given the first 10 matches to assess his performance in line with the club’s target, which is not necessarily to win the league, but to win back the hearts of Highlanders family.
“We hereby today (yesterday) present formally and officially the man who will coach the team for the 2015 season. We are here to formalise the whole process,” said club chairman Peter Dube.
“We are unveiling none other than Bongani Mafu as the new coach of Highlanders Football Club. We have made all considerations and felt we have accommodated so many of our interests and aspects of the club. We believe he is highly qualified to generate the ambition. He has the background of the club other than being a die-hard supporter.”
Dube said the rest of the technical team would be announced in the first week of January and Mafu would be involved in hunting for his lieutenants with the executive having the final say.
Former manager and club chairman Ernest “Maphepha” Sibanda and ZPC Kariba manager Partson Ndabambi are tipped to take over from Willard Mashinkila-Khumalo.
Former Highlanders captain Dazzy Kapenya has been touted to take over as assistant to Mafu with Bosso reportedly courting back goalkeeper’s coach Tembo Chuma who had also crossed the floor to ZPC Kariba.
Dube said in his stay in the UK, Mafu dealt mostly with junior players and it was in that vein that he fitted well into the system as Bosso aims to revive the once-vibrant junior policy.
In an advertisement that Highlanders flighted a few weeks ago for the job of technical manager, Bosso stated that the incumbent “. . . should have coached at premier league level and be able to direct football development structures”.
“He goes on to fit the bill of junior policy,” Dube said.
“He has dealt with mainly young players in his entire life. We are hopeful that the culture and the nature of the club will thus be uplifted although he may need to be reminded, but he knows what it entails. He has been exposed to football standards that are at a higher level. We will help him 110% to get those results.”
Mafu said he was ecstatic to be joining the Highlanders family after many years abroad, having left the country when he was coaching Zimbabwe Saints, a team he helped survive relegation.
“I am an elated man,” he said.
“It is a pleasure for me to stand in front of you and tell you that I am the new Highlanders Football Club coach. I have been in the game for a long time, having coached locally, in Botswana and in Europe.
“I appreciate the pressure that comes with coaching Highlanders, but I embrace the challenge. They (other clubs) are going to struggle to beat me. My aim is to play excellent and disciplined football and win all the games. The other thing is to change the players’ mentality into knowing that football is work.
“I believe we have good players. What we have to change are ideologies, behaviours and approaches to give out the best possible.”
Mafu holds a Uefa B Licence, German International Licence, Zifa Level IV coaching certificate and has been attached to Italian giants AC Milan.- SouthernEye

One Reply to “Highlanders Reveals New Coach”

  1. Dear Highlanders,
    Congratulations on finding a coach or for picking one from the diaspora, at least he comes with fat cheeks and bums plus a big tummy to boot, to an unknowing people it will seem as if I Highanders iyagcina izisebenzi nzayo….but come 31st December 2015, with a string of loses and a blasé attitude from the executive this man will shown the door, as long Thobela/Mafu will not have a say on the treasury dealings, ash, you are just a pawn in this game of games that has been played on us since 1963. The problem at Highlanders is not about players or coaches, but about how the finances are handled, and the priorities of those at the helm…..the team seems to be rotating same garbage, who give it flirtatious success, that is, you guessed right, not long term, as long as you donot look at players’ improved pay, players welfare, general health outside of football, players perks..cars , accommodation, schooling, after playing care, you are just a clanking cymbals of a club. I have silently studied this team for year, and pin pointed its rot and cancer, it’s corruption of the High(iest)landers order, try Thobela uzibonele, indoda ifa izamile, Kodak isiphetho iyafa….am sorry to sound negative but there is nothing positive about the history of Highlanders, even at its hey days.

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