Online Reporter
Sharuko on Saturday
I HAVE lived and worked in Harare for all the 33 years of my working life and the capital has become my home, far away from home.
Even though my adventure has taken me to all the continents in this world and its glamour cities like Paris, London, Melbourne and its magical cities like Kingston in Jamaica, there is no place like Harare for me.
In its chaos lies its beauty, in its wonderful people lies its enduring magic and in its peace and tranquillity lies its warmth.
It’s home, it’s a huge part of me, and football is a big part of this city.
It is the home of Dynamos, the country’s biggest and most successful football club, the Glamour Boys to its fans, a beast of a club which, in the days before its cruel conversion into the Marriot family’s tuckshop, had a pedigree which was felt throughout the continent.
Today, reduced into the closest thing a football club can be to a family’s ATM, DeMbare are barely recognisable as the club which reached the final of the CAF Champions League in ’98 and the semi-finals of the same tournament ten years later.
It is the home of CAPS United, the country’s third biggest and most successful football club, the Green Machine to its fans, a club which was built to challenge DeMbare’s dominance.
My adventure as a professional sports journalist at this newspaper started at the same time the top-flight league was taking its huge leap from being the Super League to the Premier Soccer League.
The revolution was spearheaded by Morrison Sifelani, Chris Sibanda, Wieslaw Grabowski and Victor Zvobgo and the resistance came from ZIFA, with a little bit of help from Alec Smith, and his colleagues at Black Aces.
Ultimately, the revolution succeeded.
But I don’t think the clubs have benefited anything from their breakaway from the direct control under ZIFA and, to be frank, their so-called independence has brought nothing but misery and poverty on their doorsteps.
That’s a conversation for another day.
Given that I’m not originally from Harare, it’s fair to say that I arrived in the big city without any ties to its football clubs and still trapped in my lifelong romance with my hometown club Chakari United.
I knew that Dynamos were the big boys and their record, when I started this adventure, told their successful story in bold letters — SEVEN league titles, in 10 seasons, during the ’80s.
And, even when I became a sports journalist, the clubs from the capital continued to punch according to their weight and Dynamos won three more titles in the ’90s and even elevated themselves to be considered the best football club in Africa in ’98 when they lost in the CAF Champions League final.
The CAPS United Class of ’66 created memories which will last a lifetime and Blackpool made history as the first Zimbabwean club to reach the semi-finals of a CAF inter-club tournament in ’95.
Even when DeMbare were struggling, in the early parts of the new millennium, the Green Machine would fill the void and in 2004 they came tantalisingly close to the immortality that come with being Invincibles, losing only one game all season.
Even the small boys — Monomotapa, Gunners and Motor Action — won the league championship while flying the capital’s flag.
THEN, JUST LIKE THAT, IT ALL ENDED
However, all that ended in 2016, when CAPS United were crowned champions and, in the nine years that have followed, it has been very bleak for football in the capital.
Right now, Dynamos, are in dire straits, burdened by debt, crippled by a dysfunctional leadership and they are being destroyed by an owner who appears to have been plucked from hell.
Incredibly, and increasingly, we find ourselves having to deal with the conversation that there is a possibility DeMbare could be relegated at the end of this season.
Such a subject, when I arrived in the capital all those years back, would have been taboo and the first red signals that people see when someone is slipping into madness.
There is a possibility that DeMbare will survive, there are too many points still at stake, there isn’t a vast gulf between them and the other clubs who are in relegation trouble and all they need are just one or two wins and their season can turn around.
The problem, though, is that they haven’t shown any signs of having the capacity to win a match — just two wins in 18 games is a pathetic return for such a giant of a club and that both wins came at Rufaro, and were narrow victories, highlights their weaknesses.
This other week their coach Saul Chaminuka was mourning about the poor state of the surface at Rufaro and he has a valid point but he appeared to forget that this is the only place where they have won their two games this season.
I covered the DeMbare Cinderella adventure in ’98 from the start in Maputo to the end in Abidjan and I can tell you folks that it was the magical ride of my sports journalism career.
This was a team that I was proud to identify with as a club from my country, which fought in the trenches with honour and fearlessness, which kept punching above its weight and which would have been African champions if their inspirational skipper Memory Mucherahowa had played in the second leg of the final.
Now, I can barely recognise the Dynamos that we have today as having any link whatsoever to the DeMbare we used to have back in those days when their name would be mentioned alongside the likes of Al Ahly and Zamalek and no one would say that a mistake had been made.
Now, we have a ghost ship, owned by the poorest club owner in the history of football, a man whose US$90 DStv subscription has to be paid for by the club when other owners splash millions just to ensure that their projects remain viable.
I have heard all the crazy stories that ZIFA and the PSL will be forced to freeze relegation this season to protect Dynamos, in the event they end up in relegation trouble, and even increase the number of clubs in the top-flight league.
Whoever is coming up with those crazy ideas really need to have his mind examined by psychiatric experts and if that is what the ZIFA and PSL leaders are mooting then they should all step down.
Those who are pushing this fantasy are still stuck in the past that Dynamos, in its current form and under its current ownership, are still a giant football club whose absence from the PSL could cripple the league.
They are divorced from the reality that this isn’t Dynamos as we have known it all this time and, while it still has a golden name with a golden history, the reality is that what remains right now is just a shell.
This is not the Dynamos I saw when I arrived in this big city, a club whose training sessions used to attract scores of people.
Now, this is a club which is now struggling to attract even 2 000 fans to its home games.
This is a club which, 14 years after it introduced Denver Mukamba, is turning back to him to help them escape relegation, a club which feels a romance with Ocean Mushure might just be what the doctor ordered for them to avoid the chop.
The same Ocean Mushure who, just two weeks ago, agreed terms with Jameson FC to play in the Harare Super League, which features social clubs in the capital and has the likes of Evans Gwekwerere and Edward Sadomba as some of its players.
The same Ocean Mushure who was given a US$40 advance payment by Jameson FC to tie him down but never returned to pick the outstanding US$20 of this US$60 deal to complete the move.
For me, DeMbare’s relegation will actually not be a bad thing but it will probably be the best thing to happen to the Glamour Boys right now.
If they go into Division One, where we will welcome them with open hands at Pfupajena, Marriot will realise that we were right all along that he was dragging this club into its grave and I’m pretty sure he will let it go.
The people, who are the real owners of this club, will take over their gift from their fathers, grand fathers and great grandfathers and we will see the proper reconstruction of Dynamos.
We will see a revival of this great club.
The challenge with DeMbare escaping relegation is that nothing will change at the club — Marriot and his hangers-on will believe that they are right and we will have another year of kamikaze experiments.
This city, this great club, deserve better than all this nonsense we are seeing from the Glamour Boys camp and DeMbare’s relegation could just be what is needed.
To God Be The Glory!
Peace to the GEPA Chief, the Big Fish, George Norton, Daily Service, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and all the Chakariboys in the struggle.
Come on Warriors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Khamaldinhoooooooooooooooooo!
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Hatingapise dura nekuti mapinda gonzo.