Adam Ngoma dies

who were based in Harare’s high-density suburb of Mufakose.
And according to Ngoma’s former teammate at both Eradicators and the Zimbabwe senior men’s team, Harold Abrahams, the talented midfielder had been working for a geological survey company in the Democratic Republic of Congo for the past seven years and was not feeling well when he returned home from the central African country in late November last year.
“When he returned home from the DRC in late November last year, Adam indicated that he had abdominal cancer and his condition deteriorated last month before he was taken to Bulawayo by his mother to get some treatment but he unfortunately died there,” Abrahams said.
Ngoma was one of the founder members of Eradicators who were formed in October 1984 by Custom Kachambwa who was then a law student at the University of Zimbabwe.
Eradicators also became the first all-black hockey club to be affiliated to the Mashonaland Hockey Board in 1985 and apart from Kachambwa, they had an array of talented young players such as Ngoma, goalkeepers Abrahams and Shepherd Manganzo, his brother Israel, Daniel Chinange, Wilbert Rusani and the late Charles Chidyausayi.
Also in that team were other good players such as Tendai Ruzane (the club’s founder captain), Nathan Sundayi, the late Langton Zisengwe,  Jonathan Chaparadza (late), Sam Madziva and Jeremiah Tanyongana.
They were later joined at that club by a group of budding hockey stars who included skilful striker Aleck Isulu, Jeremiah Matibiri, Erasmus Hodza, Kudzanayi Nyamurova, Ngoma’s young brother Welington, who was popularly known as “Hwezha”, and Robert Muza.
July 1988 saw Eradicators, with the help of this group of talented players, making history as they became the first all-black team to qualify to play First League hockey in this country.
On the road to men’s Mashonaland First League, the then youthful Mufakose-based side massacred Sunrise C 9-0 before they held Standard Bank to a 3-3 draw in their second match in the Second League.
Eradicators then went on to score a surprise 2-0 victory over Harare Sports Club B. They also accounted for Hockey Club 3-2.
Needing only a point in their last encounter against Sunrise A to qualify for First League, Eradicators did just that by holding their adversaries to a 2-2 draw at the beginning of July 1988 and the door was opened for them to face “the big guns” in the third round.
Without doubt, that was a phenomenal achievement for Eradicators who had just graduated to the Second League the previous year.
And they owed all this to Kachambwa, who started the club from scratch, and to their talented players who included Adam Ngoma who first started playing hockey as a defender before he became a versatile midfielder and the former was once quoted as saying in January 1987 that he was particularly impressed with the improvement of players Adam Ngoma, Sundayi, Isulu and then 15-year-old “trumpcard” Hodza.
In fact, before helping Eradicators to gain a First League status in July 1988, Adam Ngoma found himself being picked for the men’s senior national team for a tour of Pakistan ahead of Zimbabwe’s participation at the 1987 All-Africa Games in Nairobi, Kenya.
Adam Ngoma and fellow young talented players such as Des Stephens and Gary Carlisle were taken for the tour of Pakistan as “understudies” to some senior national team stars with the hope of nurturing and grooming them for the Zimbabwe senior squad.
Adam Ngoma finally made it into the Zimbabwe senior squad for the 1991 All-Africa Games which were held in Cairo, Egypt, and the team was under the guidance of Briton John Wright.
Before playing for Zimbabwe, Adam Ngoma had initially made it into the Zimbabwe Schools hockey team in 1987 with his teammate at Eradicators, Abrahams, while they were both high school pupils at Prince Edward in Harare.
Adam Ngoma and Abrahams were also picked for the national Under-21 team before they graduated into the senior squad.
Adam Ngoma played hockey for both Zimbabwe and Eradicators until the late 1990s before he hung up his stick and temporarily turned his hand to coaching the sport.
He later joined a geological survey company which moved him to the DRC in 2006 and was working there until his untimely death last month.
Abrahams paid tribute to his former teammate at Eradicators, Adam Ngoma, and said: “Eradicators’ glorious history of becoming the first all-black team to play First League hockey in this country was created by people like Adam. Anyone that witnessed what Adam could do on the pitch wished they could do the same.
He made an immense contribution to the game, and enriched the lives of everyone that saw him play. And when he passed on, it was really a very sad moment for all of us who played hockey with him at Eradicators.
“We’re going to miss him very, very much. He was a great pal of mine at Eradicators, a very unassuming lad, very kind and quiet and enjoyed company. He was an absolute genius on the hockey pitch.”
Adam Ngoma, who is survived by his wife Sifiso and three children —two girls and a boy — was buried at Warren Hills Cemetery in Harare.