adminEddie Chikamhi
Senior Sports Reporter
ACES Youth Soccer Academy’s dream of setting up a world-class sports facility remain a pipe dream as the institution is battling to recover land they bought in Harare South and invested around US$300 000 in developments.
The grand project, which was envisaged more than a decade ago, was funded partly with their share of the proceeds of the sale of Knowledge Musona by Kaizer Chiefs to German Bundesliga side TSG Hoffenheim in 2011.
The academy’s co-founders and directors Nigel Munyati and Marc Duvillard and the trust running the academy decided to invest in the facility in their bid to produce more star players and purchased land from the Manyame Rural District Council.
The land cost the academy about US$30 000 but the expenses increased tenfold following the civil works that had begun at the site.
Unfortunately, works were stalled indefinitely when the Ministry of Lands stepped in and ordered AYSA off the land since the property did not belong to the seller, the Manyame Rural District Council.
The piece of land in question is located in Harare South, just behind the Harare South Golf Course. It was classified under State land and therefore belonged to the Ministry of Lands.
AYSA, who were left holding on to documents, have been making frantic efforts to get justice but nothing has been recovered 10 years down the line.
“The important story that has not been told is that in 2008 we had a big dream of building an institution that is self-contained, where the kids live, go to school and play soccer,” said Munyati.
“We actually bought land in Harare South from the Manyame Rural District Council. The piece of land is located just behind the Harare South Golf Course.
“This wasn’t land given to us for free, we actually paid for it. It was the equivalent of about US$30 000 and in 2010-11 we started to develop that place.
“When we bought it, it was a forest. We had to bring in bulldozers to bring down big trees and to level the ground. When we were about to put grass on the soccer pitches, we got a visit from the Ministry of Lands officials, asking us ‘what are you doing here?’
“It was surprising someone would ask such a question because, after all, this is our land. We bought it and we are developing it. They went away but a day or two later we got a notice of eviction and we were like, what?!
“We had all the paperwork with us and we still have them today. As it turned out, the Manyame Rural District Council sold us land that wasn’t theirs. It belonged to the Ministry of Lands. Otherwise, it’s state land.
“They say how they operate is that, the Ministry of Lands allocates land regularly to the Ministry of Local Government to develop.
“In this case, the Manyame Rural District Council, due to their incompetence, I guess, thought that this piece of land was theirs and then they sold it to us.
“So it was taken away from us and if you go down there you will see they are now developing this Ministry of Lands housing development scheme. That was our space. We had actually spent close to US$300 000 in civil works.
“We were actually ready to build. But we were evicted in 2012 and upto now we are still fighting the Ministry of Local Government to get our land back,” said Munyati.
AYSA is the football development arm of the Aces Youth Sport and Soccer Foundation Trust.
Since its establishment on February 7, 2001, the Academy has provided social development support for Zimbabwe’s disadvantaged children through sport and academic education.
At its peak the academy had an enrolment of 120 children. But they have been forced to scale down to 73 because of the need to improve quality and the limited resources.
AYSA are currently based in Waterfalls and had wanted a bigger place for their football and academic activities. They are confined to their club house in Waterfalls which accommodates offices, dormitories and study areas for their students while they have to rent training facilities.
AYSA’s philosophy is underpinned on sport and academic development for boys and girls aged between 10 and 18 years. The institution has seen over 300 professional players pass through their doors. Munyati appealed to Government officials to look into their issue.
“Talk of the retardation of development. Imagine, it would have been 13 years that we would have been running this institution (in Harare South) as a centre of football excellence. But that was all denied to us.
“It’s sad that sometimes our leadership do not understand how some of these things are important. It could have easily been an institution that even when the national team is looking for somewhere quiet to train they could have easily had that.
“Anyway we are still fighting and hopefully one of these days we will get the land back. We are determined to get it back and we hope that Government appreciates the importance of sports development,” said Munyati.
AYSA, who are renowned for producing some of the best football exports during the last decade, have given birth to several national football team players that include George Chigova, Donovan Bernard, Jimmy Dzingai, Lincoln Zvasiya, with Warriors captain Musona and Khama Billiat probably their most successful stories.
They have also produced women national team players like Violet Bepete, Eunice Chibanda, Rufaro Machingura, Daisy Kaitano and former captain Marjory Nyaumwe.
The last 20 years have been eventful.
“It’s a combination of pride and frustration,” said Munyati.
“We have satisfaction in what we have achieved under very truing circumstances and the fact that we have given premier football development the limelight which it didn’t have. “I can tell you without hesitation, we were the first successful academy that paved the way for everybody else and we hope that what we have done will continue to inspire others and to do it properly.”
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