Deep in the Lowveld

For a man who blazed a trail for local footballers by becoming the first black Zimbabwean player to move to a European club, his latest stop, at a Division One side, appears a journey backwards.

Maybe, that’s why, the first thing that comes out, when chatting to him, is that he misses his family and his friends in Harare.
“So far so good but I miss my family a lot and sometimes I miss the guys (at Jazz 105),” Chunga told The Saturday Herald at his home in the Lowveld.

“I try not to think too much about my loneliness because this is a very small town.
“I have become accustomed to wild pigs and monkeys that frequent this place. They eat some of the bananas in the orchard and leave some for me because we live in harmony. This is my sixth month and I want to check and see if this place will suit me.”

Chunga says he has to battle some challenges. “Challenges are always around when dealing with human beings but it’s how one manages them that matters,” said the former Zimbabwe skipper.

“I am happy that the community has been very supportive and we have support from the human resources department led by (Mr) Nyangwe, who is the managing director.
“There is also the Big Bee, who is our club president, Tarisayi Mudambanuki.”

Now residing some 450km away from the capital, Chunga says he tries, as much as he can, to find time to visit his family each time Hippo Valley travels for an away fixture closer to Harare.

“The terrain on the Zaka-Jerera-Chivhu route is not enjoyable at all, to travel often, so I make sure that sometimes I travel once every month,” said Chunga. “Sometimes I travel every two weeks if we are playing matches closer to Harare. Going up and down means I have to drive nearly 1 000km.

“When playing against teams like Ruwa United or even Mutare, I push to see my family after the matches before I join the club for training.” Chunga has also turned himself into a cook.

“If I am at home, I cook, but if we are at training I go and dine with my assistant coaches. I have cut the training sessions for the senior team to one per day,” said Chunga
“Sometimes I go to Hippo Valley Secondary School and try to work with the school team in the afternoons.

“We are also going to introduce training sessions for primary schools soon. This will mean that players from the primary school will feed to the secondary school and then feed to the senior team.

“Basically that is the mission or development pattern we have. Already we have one guy who came from the system, while our team has about five players who are under 20 years.

“We are not limiting our selection of talent to Hippo Valley but we are going further to surrounding areas like Chiredzi, Triangle and other areas around the Lowveld.”
Golf, he says, is still part of his life.

“I still play golf at the Hippo Valley Golf Club if have time on Saturdays,” said Chunga.
“I am fighting to improve my handicap from 24. I have not been playing regularly.

“The Estate 19 Office provides a lady who comes twice a week to clean my house while there is also a gardener who comes to tidy up the place.”
Hippo Valley are in a commanding position in the Zifa Eastern Region where they have opened a 13-point lead and are unbeaten as they face ZRP Masvingo at Mucheke tomorrow.

Seasoned players like Rowan Nenzou, Fidelis Mangezi, Asani Nhongo, Sam Musimbo, Hillary Bakacheza, Brighton Pamhirwa and Lloyd Masakusa have formed the core of the current squad. Chunga has a history of being a nomadic coach.

“Why do people always think that I run away from teams? I have never run away from a club or breached my contract,” said Chunga.
“I know the consequences of breaching a contract. If you breach a contract you pay.

“But for me it’s the other way round, they breach my contract and they pay me, then I leave.
“But some people are hypocrites and they do not know the nitty-gritties in the contracts while the media sometimes rush to publish that Bambo has breached a contract without coming to verify the facts.

“There are people who just want to distort facts on Moses Chunga but I do not need to jump to my defence because the media have laid some accusations which are false.
“I know the gospel according to myself, Bambo, and if everything goes well we want to change this place from Hippo Valley to Happy Valley.”

Chunga says his main job now is to ensure that complacency doesn’t creep into his charges.
“The players have been to difficult places before and mentally they have adjusted to life here in Hippo Valley,” said Chunga.

“Rowan is a former soldier while the likes of Fidelis have played international football in Africa before and that’s why I recruited them. As a coach I have to keep on pushing them to win and this is what distinguishes a good coach from a mediocre coach — to continue creating hunger for success.

“We hope to give an opportunity for the people in the Lowveld to watch more Premiership matches at their doorsteps next season.
“There is need to change the mindset of the people here so that they do not feel that they are inferior to other Zimbabweans.”

As a parting shot, Chunga took a dig at the CAPS United fans for the way the fans pushed him out of the dressing room in 2011.
“I feel vindicated when I see the current CAPS United team with a player like Arnold Chiveya. I saw the potential in Chiveya and tried to get him into the system and it had to take some time but the fans were not patient.

“CAPS United fans booed him off and they also insulted me and even my mother. That was unacceptable.
“But right now Chiveya is being given due respect, yet he is the same player the fans chased away.”

Chunga said he would have turned CAPS United into a very competitive team if he had been given time.
“Back then we were building a team and if only the CAPS United fans were patient with my project, I am sure by now they could have been competing with the best teams in the league,” said Chunga.

“I was like a builder building a wall and had reached the window level but some fans were like the naughty dagga boys who came to knock off the bricks on the bottom levels.
“In the end the whole structure will crumble and I did not want my image to be tarnished.

“During my time at CAPS United, I coached some die-hard Dynamos supporters, posing as players, and it was difficult to motivate them to win against DeMbare.
“I tell you that I coached players who asked about the Dynamos results in the dressing room even before they had taken off their CAPS United socks on an away game.

“I am a professional who declared my interests but in the end they lost it. By now CAPS United could have been bathing in league championship honours.”