BULAWAYO – Highlanders lurched into a new crisis on Wednesday after players boycotted training for the second time in a month over outstanding salaries and bonuses, disrupting preparations for Sunday’s Castle Lager Premier Soccer League showdown with Triangle at Barbourfields.
The playing squad, technical staff and office administrators are owed two months’ salaries and bonuses, while coach Benjani Mwaruwari has gone three months without pay, though he is not believed to have joined the stoppage.
The dispute spans two separate funding arrangements. Mwaruwari is paid directly by club sponsor Wicknell Chivayo, while player and staff salaries flow through Sakunda Holdings, the energy company owned by petroleum tycoon Kudakwashe Tagwirei.
Delays across both channels have left the entire Highlanders operation simultaneously short-changed.
The current stoppage is the second of its kind within a month. In April, players staged a three-day strike before returning to training after securing assurances from Sakunda – assurances that now appear to have gone unfulfilled.
Sources say the financial pressure has pushed Mwaruwari to an extraordinary measure, with the coach reaching into his own pocket to pay players in a bid to maintain morale.
The turmoil comes at a precarious moment for a side struggling for consistency. Highlanders have won just one of their opening ten league matches, drawing eight and losing one, leaving them 11 points adrift of pace-setters CAPS United.
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