Bhekimpilo Mthandazo Sibanda

The first black-and-white scarf Bheki Sibanda ever owned was knitted by his mother in 1962, and he was buried with its fifth replacement. In between lay fifty years of home matches at Barbourfields and a love for Highlanders, 'Bosso', that outlasted every trophy drought.

Born in Tsholotsho in 1952, Bhekimpilo was the third of seven children. He herded cattle as a boy, walked six kilometres to school and in 1970 won a place at the Bulawayo Technical College, where he trained in mechanical engineering. In 1974 he joined National Railways of Zimbabwe at the Bulawayo locomotive workshops, and for thirty-eight years he repaired steam and diesel engines, becoming the man the apprentices went to when a stubborn fault would not yield.

He could identify a locomotive from the sound of its whistle two kilometres away. He trained dozens of apprentices, never raised his voice, and brought each of them home for a Sunday meal of isitshwala and ulude. Through the years of retrenchment and delayed wages, he kept the workshop running with improvised parts and patient humour.

On match days he wore the scarf and led a branch of supporters from Mpopoma in song, and at home he kept a shoebox of ticket stubs that his children found fascinating and his wife found infuriating. He married Thembelihle Moyo in 1979, raised three children, and spent his retirement in his garden in Mzilikazi, growing maize, beans and one famous pumpkin.

Bheki died in Bulawayo in November 2024 after a short illness, and was laid to rest at the family homestead in Tsholotsho. He leaves his wife of forty-five years, three children and twelve grandchildren.