DeMbare speak glowingly of Botswana invite

DYNAMOS chief executive officer Jonathan Mashingaidze has said their recent invitation by Botswana Premiership Club Township Rollers is a welcome development which will help in the Harare side’s 60th anniversary celebrations.

Township Rollers are celebrating their 62nd birthday this year.

Mashingaidze said the invitation had come at the right time and would add value in their activations which will culminate in an awards night in November.

Dynamos are looking forward to facing Township Rollers on August 12 should they get approval from the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League.

“The invitation is more than welcome. We are looking forward to going there to give the celebrations the Zimbabwean flavour, that of the Glamour Boys. The Township Rollers’ celebrations resonate with our emblematic desire of seeking to achieve more. The invite echoes well with us and we would like to take this opportunity to connect with our fans who are based in Botswana. We will use the opportunity to further create activations for our own 60th anniversary awards night that will be held in November,” said Mashingaidze.

Boasting 22 league titles, providing the most Soccer Stars of the Year (the highest local accolade for players) and renowned for grooming Zimbabwe’s most loved and popular players that include the late George “Mastermind” Shaya, Sunday Chidzambwa, Vitalis Takawira, Moses ‘Bambo’ Chunga and their former tearaway striker Tauya ‘The Flying Doctor’ Murewa, DeMbare still want to fly higher hence the grabbing of the Township Rollers’ 62nd anniversary celebrations invite with both hands.

“We share the same DNA with Township Rollers with regards to revolution, governance, packaging and business approach. We will also be going there to exchange notes with one of the biggest clubs in the region as we look forward to our big celebration day,” said Mashingaidze.

DeMbare can brag about being the only Zimbabwean side to reach the Caf Champions League final.

From five league championships, a Madison trophy, two Mbada Diamonds Cups and some Bob Super Cup and Independence Trophy titles they have won since 1998, it does not need any chameleonic caution to mention that December 12, 2023 will mark exactly 25 years since that fateful second leg of the final in Abidjan, when DeMbare fell 2-4 to Asec Mimosa.

The match was played at the Stade Felix Houphouet-Boigny on December 12, 1998, a fortnight after the first leg had ended 0-0 at the National Sports Stadium.

Never-ending boardroom squabbles have, however, affected Dynamos since 1998.

However, over the years, Chazunguza has become a coach production workshop.

If Tonderai Ndiraya, now with newly promoted Simba Bhora, had won the 2021/2002 season Castle Lager Premiership title, he would have added his name to a number of illustrious DeMbare sons who have DeMbare to become kings of the domestic football scene.

Legendary coach Sunday (Chidzambwa) heads that list with seven league titles, three of them coming in the era of the modern Premiership in 1994, 1995 and 1997, before he walked out on the Glamour Boys two years later.

Callisto Pasuwa won four straight league titles, the first coach to achieve that feat in the domestic Premiership, taking over a Glamour Boys outfit that was staggering in the final stages of the 2011 marathon, and transforming them into a championship-winning side that year.

Two other DeMbare sons, Moses Chunga, who won the league title with Gunners in 2009, and the late David “Yogi” Mandigora, who ended the Glamour Boys’ 10-year wait for the biggest prize in Zimbabwe football in 2007, have also been crowned champions. — @FungaiMuderere