Africa-Press – Tanzania. HUNDREDS of members and fans of Simba turned up at Karimjee Hall in Dar es Salaam yesterday in the last respect and memorial service of the club’s Board member, Zacharia Hans Poppe who died on Friday night.
The fallen hero passed away at Aga Khan hospital in the city where he was hospitalised, and he is expected to be laid to rest at his home village Kihesa Mkimbizi in Iringa tomorrow.
Speaking during the service, the club’s chairman Murtaza Mangungu described him as a warrior of transformation who played a critical role to speed up transformation procedures at the club.
“The first seeds of transformation were planted by him (Hans Poppe) who contributed his own 14m/- to pay our colleagues at the Open University for the sake of conducting strategic planning of the transformation exercise,” Mangungu said.
He added that during his lifetime, he travelled with Simba everywhere and he used to pay for his expenses without seeking refund from the club; a thing he described as the true love he had for the club.
Moreover, the chairman named Hans Poppe as a straightforward person who was direct in making decisions and was not afraid to speak out on what he believed was right.
“He fell sick four to five weeks ago and he was admitted at Aga Khan hospital. Despite being in hospital, he was always following what was happening at the club through WhatsApp and other platforms,” he said.
Again, Mangungu said the deceased was a highly disciplined person; a quality he said helped him a lot to be a respectable individual hence he called upon people to borrow his leaf.
“He was also good at time management such that whenever we had a meeting, he usually arrived earlier than the rest of us as such, we need to learn a lot from his life,” he said.
Mangungu was also pleased to see representatives of their traditional rivals Young Africans at the service which he named a good gesture to be promoted always.
“Simba and Yanga are just traditional rivals on the pitch but during community issues, we work together as one people,” he narrated.
He then unveiled that the club has already received condolence messages from the Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa and Speaker of the National Assembly Job Ndugai among many others.
Until his death, Hans Poppe was the chairman of Simba’s registration committee which was in the frontline in bringing new players at the club.
