City reward Masepe executive

Petros Kausiyo Deputy Sports Editor
HARARE City’s steady rise from bottom of the log to mid-table and a place in the Chibuku Cup semi-finals has not gone unnoticed by the City Fathers who have now rewarded the interim executive led by veteran Alois Masepe with a substantive mandate to administer the Sunshine Boys.
The Sunshine Boys will face troubled Premiership giants Highlanders in the second of the Chibuku Cup semi-finals at Rufaro on Sunday with Masimba Dinyero’s men eyeing their first major silverware in the domestic game.

The stability in the Harare City camp was boosted by the news that a full Harare City Council meeting had recently resolved to extend to at least the end of 2015 the tenure of seasoned administrator Masepe after the team’s impressive run under his management and communicated the decision through Town Clerk Tendai Mahachi.

Masepe leads a cast that includes vice chairman Stanley Ndemera, secretary-general Mathew Marara, Tendai Kwenda the treasurer, legal secretary Charles Kandemiri and organising secretary Everisto Rukasha.

Late sports consultant Shepherd Chiware was, until the time of his death, part of Masepe’s management crew and was in charge of the marketing portfolio.

Although a place in the Chibuku Super Cup final beckons in the event that Harare City overcome Bosso at Rufaro, Masepe insisted yesterday that his team’s main focus remained on avoiding relegation in the Premiership.

Masepe also expressed happiness with the manner in which former Dynamos, Blackpool and Black Mambas midfielder Dinyero had gone about his business since taking over from Bigboy Mawiwi at the end of July.

Dinyero has only lost twice in the league and helped Harare City to move up into eighth place with 34 points.

“We will not put our boys under pressure. Being in the Chibuku Cup semi-finals is a bonus for us, but the target for Masimba and his team is on avoiding relegation in the league.

“We are not going to be diverted by the Chibuku Cup. We will do our best in the tournament and we will do justice to the sponsors who have chosen to partner our football despite these difficult times.

“But it must be clearly understood that the mission for this team and for the executive is to stay in the top league . . . we have lost twice only since July thanks to the support of every stakeholders and the unity in the Sunshine Boys family, we are entirely satisfied with the progress we have made so far’’.

Masepe also outlined a grand vision for Harare City which he said would go into full throttle next year, once they achieve the dreaded chop from the top-flight.

“We have set 2015 as the year for consolidation to build a foundation to turn Harare City into a powerful institution that its potential deserves. We have to position Harare City FC within the institution of Harare City Council so that it is part of and benefits from the sporting infrastructure of the City.

“We have excellent sporting infrastructure in Harare, but at the moment the football club does not fit into the structure so we want to make Rufaro into the home of the Sunshine Boys because the team does not have a real home yet the city owns stadiums.

“Rufaro was for everybody and for nobody before we had a football club, but we believe and want it branded accordingly so that it resembles the home of Harare City with a club house at the venue.

“We also have council schools in the community and there must be a link with the club and that is what I call embedding the club and the structures that are existing. In terms of potential we have the huge potential to turn the club into the strongest on the land because we have the infrastructure and we have 35 council schools that play football and we should be tapping into the talent in those schools and developing it.

“After entrenching the club with the City structures, we can then pursue the twinning arrangements that we have with such cities like Munich, New York and Nottingham and see how best the club can befit from those arrangements,’’ Masepe said.

Dinyero will once again lead his troops into battle against Bosso on Sunday, knowing too that his job is also secure.

“We are preparing well and the only player who will miss in action will be (James) Jam who accumulated three yellow cards in previous matches.

“As Harare City we are not bothered much about his absence as we have enough cover. We will take their Chibuku semi-final match against Highlanders seriously because we need to be in the final.

“We are training very hard and everyone is focused ahead of our clash with Highlanders. We will take this game as a completely new game as anything can happen in the game,” Dinyero said.

Dinyero also said he would not be fooled by the problems being faced by Highlanders that sparked the departure of Zambian gaffer Kelvin Kaindu and saw opinion at the club being sharply divided by Cosmas Zulu’s appointment as the club’s new head of technical.