BULAWAYO - The welfare of former footballers has been thrust back into the spotlight following the death of former Zimbabwe international Nqobizitha "Jackal" Maenzanise.
A brilliant footballer during his heyday, Maenzanise was working as a caretaker at the Baptist Church in Bulawayo at the time of his death, a far cry from his glory days when he was part of the well sponsored AmaZulu Football Club that illuminated the Zimbabwean football scene in the mid-2000s.
Speaking to reporters at the burial of the former Merlin Husky, Highlanders, Zimbabwe Saints, AmaZulu and Chrome Stars linkman at West Park on Wednesday, his former boss at Usuthu, Delma Lupepe, said it is sad that most former footballers in the country are struggling to make ends met.
"It saddens when I see the state of most former football players in the country," Lupepe said.
"It is unfortunate that AmaZulu were into football for such a short time because we had a lot of positive developments that we wanted to bring into the local game including the issue of pensions but we were forced out of football by our rivals."
AmaZulu were relegated from the top-flight after losing points when they did not fulfil fixtures they were supposed to play on Saturday, which is a day that their owner Lupepe, as a devout Seventh Day Adventist, considers a holy day that should be set aside for worship.
Maenzanise's former skipper at Highlanders, Willard Mashinkila-Khumalo, said the issue of introducing a pension scheme for former players was long overdue.
"We have sat down as former players and talked about the issue of our friends passing on without getting any form of assistance and at Highlanders we now have a funeral policy which covers all our former players," said Khumalo.
"Such schemes should not be happening only at Highlanders but it’s just unfortunate that when such issues are discussed some do not take us seriously and we have to sit down and tackle this issue ourselves and not wait for someone else to do it for us."
Khumalo also implored the current crop of footballers to be wise and put their lives in order to avoid the pitfalls that come with fame and fortune.
"We need the young players to understand that there will come a time when their playing days are over and we have to educate them that there is life after football," Khumalo said.
"They are lucky that legends like Douglas Mloyi and Philimon Dangarebwa are still around and they can really help is such situations."
Previous attempts to set up a pension scheme for footballers collapsed after the players reneged on the arrangement upon realising that the deductions would come from their salaries.