DEMBARE DENY OUR SANGOMA STORY…

Robson Sharuko

Editor

TWO days after we published our WORLD EXCLUSIVE that Dynamos paid US$1 000 to a sangoma ahead of their league match against Highlanders at Rufaro, the Glamour Boys have finally responded.

The Harare giants issued a statement, which did not have any ownership, saying they didn’t engage the services of the sangoma.

“Dynamos Football Club would like to distance the club from the alleged enlisting of a sangoma ahead of the Battle of Zimbabwe Part 2 match between Dynamos and Highlanders played on Sunday 14th July 2024 at Rufaro Stadium and in any of the league matches that we play.

“The club would like to state the following:

· The club believes that football is scientific and, as such, all our energy is directed towards the application of scientific methods.

· The engagement of a sangoma, if any, was never done by the club as such practices would violate the varied spiritual beliefs held by our players. The club is alive to the constitution of Zimbabwe which provides for freedom of conscience which includes freedom of thought, opinion, religion or belief. Therefore, the club cannot impose or violate the rights of its players by engaging a sangoma.

· Investing in Iron Age practices in this day and age would inhibit the growth of the club as such the club would always strive to embrace modern football practices.

What Dynamos did not tell their fans is that they have been paying sangomas on a weekly basis and they have three sangomas in Mufakose, Bulawayo and Chihota.

The club didn’t also tell their fans that such payments became a catalyst for friction between some members of the executive and their board chairman, Bernard Marriot, last year and it led to a temporary freeze on these weekly payments.

Or, as a source within the club said yesterday, Dynamos are suggesting that they have been duped, for years, that money is being taken to pay sangomas and it doesn’t get to those sangomas at all.

“The money is buried under direct expenses and it’s something we have been doing for years because the owners of the club say it’s part of the team’s DNA and it should be done all the time.

“Of course, it shouldn’t come out in the public because such a practice clashes with some of our major partners, who are very religious but that’s what it is.

“I’m sure what really shook the house was that you guys mentioned a figure, the amount of money, otherwise without that figure it would not have been a story that would have surprised many because this is well known.”