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Tadious Manyepo Sports Reporter
PATRICK Chuma has been too traumatised.
He has hardly opened up on the day he came so close to losing his life.
Seven years have passed since 22 colleagues and he, were involved in a fatal accident that left nine of them dead and the others badly injured.
But he still bears the scars, with two implants on his chest and another on his back.
Then a Dynamos Supporters Association secretary, Chuma and his counterparts gathered at Copa Cabana bus rank in Downtown Harare from which they hired a kombi to take them to Gweru on June 11, 2016.
Like they had always done, they were following their beloved Dynamos who were scheduled to face Chapungu at Ascot in a league match in the afternoon of the fateful day. They were all jovial as always, drinking and singing, warming up for an expected party at Ascot.
They never arrived.
Just after a police check-point in Kadoma at around 11am, they stopped, hugged and had a group picture taken by the driver of the commuter omnibus.
That was to be their last picture together.
Chuma called a representative of the Kwekwe Dynamos Supporters chapter, who informed him that they were waiting for them in the Midlands town.
They would have drinks for the final 60km lap of the journey from Kwekwe together.
That too never happened.
Another fan Rukudzo Mahupete, an ice-cream vendor called her daughter Tambu, who wished she had been part of the travelling band.
That was the last time Tambu would hear her mother’s voice again.
Maxwell Machisi, another of the most renowned Dynamos fans made a call to his wife just before the group photo was taken.
That was to be the last time he stood on his feet again.
The journey continued, but didn’t last.
A couple of kilometres from Battlefields, the kombi burst its rear tyre.
A loud bang followed by screeching of brakes then disaster struck.
Nine lives gone, at the blink of an eye.
“Perhaps, we didn’t practice due diligence on the commuter omnibus in the first place,” Chuma, popularly known as Rastabingi said.
“The Kwekwe chapter was waiting for us.
“We were certain that we would meet them as we had always done. On our last stop just after Kadoma we had a group photo taken by the driver. I was seated right at the door. As we approached Battlefields, I just heard a loud bang. The next thing I was under a seat, confused. Then someone said ‘Rasta, don’t move, all is well’.
“I was feeling some pain in my chest, gasping for breath. I called names of my colleagues to which no one answered.”
Chuma alongside other injured colleagues including Machisi, who is now confined to a wheelchair would be rushed to Kwekwe Hospital before being transferred to Harare’s Avenues Clinic.
An X-ray revealed three badly damaged back disks near the spinal cord, a broken collar bone and some damages in the chest.
He needed urgent surgery.
But before that was performed, he slid into a coma.
Exactly seven days later, he came back to life only to learn that nine of his colleagues – Galelio Muchemwa, Spencer Gwasira, Prince Nheweyembwa, Mahupete, Patience Murefu, Peter Maemba, Kimberly Nduku, Violet Tauzeni and Rast Nezandoyi — had perished in the accident.
“They had all been buried. I cried non-stop, oblivious of my own condition.
“I was then operated on after two weeks. I still have the implants and my wish is to see them removed from my body soon.
“I could have been disabled had I not received proper and timely treatment”.
The Dynamos supporters last week commemorated the seventh anniversary of the disaster with each of the nine deceased’s family getting a grocery hamper.
DeMbare cheerleader Chris “Romario” Musekiwa said more needs to be done in remembrance of the deceased and the survivors.
“These are our heroes as Dynamos Football Club. We need to honour them in every way possible,” he said.
“We can arrange a football match in their honour every year with the money raised going to the deceased’s families and some to the survivors.
“Look, life has never been the same again for those who survived as they suffered permanent injuries”.
Machisi is now a gospel musician.
Online Reporter