Dynamos players back at work

Tadious Manyepo

AFTER some damaging two-and-a-half days of strike action, Dynamos players were back in training yesterday ahead of their blockbuster Chibuku Super Cup semi-final showdown against Manica Diamonds at Rufaro tomorrow.

The Glamour Boys staged sit-ins from Wednesday morning demanding their outstanding winning bonuses and sign-on fees with efforts to engage them failing to bear fruit until exactly 12.37pm yesterday when treasurer Justice Mubayi addressed them.

DeMbare players are owed winning bonuses amounting to about US$500 each, while others still have outstanding sign-on fees ranging between US$2 000 to US$10 000, which the club still has to pay.

The players reportedly demanded to know what their portion would be from the US$50 000 participation fees paid out by the Confederation of African Football for the Confederation Cup.

A second-round penalty shoot-out defeat by Botswana’s Orapa United meant that Dynamos missed out on an even bigger pay cheque of at least US$400 000 from CAF.

Seeing that their issues were being taken lightly, the players started an industrial action on Wednesday with club executive chairman Moses Maunganidze, twice failing to reach an agreement with them.

With no solution to their problems in sight, they agreed on their own to train twice yesterday, but then the club chiefs may have made an error of judgment when writing to suspend midfielder Tanaka Shandirwa for allegedly leading the rebellion.

The move, as expected, drew the ire of other players who even threatened not to fulfil the Chibuku Super Cup semi-final tie against Manica Diamonds in solidarity with Shandirwa.

They want his suspension nullified.

In the end, the players seem to have prevailed as club secretary-general Webster Marechera who was on the ground when the whole drama with the players unfolded, vehemently disowned the letter that had notified Shandirwa of his suspension.

This was moments before the players-initiated processes to have it withdrawn.

With some players taking to their cars to leave the team’s training complex, Mubayi arrived and had a 27-minute-long meeting where he thrashed an agreement with the players who then commenced training at 2pm.

The players indicated that they were training as a show of commitment to Dynamos despite indications that their money had not reflected in of the players’ accounts by late yesterday.

“We will pay them their winning bonuses for the five games tomorrow (yesterday),” Maunganidze had insisted on Thursday.

“Our agreement was to pay them once-off at the end of the season like what we did last year. It’s unfortunate they have decided to take this route, but we will pay them tomorrow (yesterday).”

Indications from the players are that they are likely to continue with their industrial action after the Chibuku Super Cup assignment.

Success in the knockout tournament guarantees the winners a ticket to next year’s Confederation Cup.

Mubayi was happy with how yesterday’s meeting with the players had gone.

“We have reached a truce and I am glad to tell you that the boys will be training in preparation for the match against Manica Diamonds,” said Mubayi.

Dynamos will go into camp today ahead of tomorrow’s match as they bid to defend the Chibuku Super Cup honours.

While DeMbare lost their preparatory time due to the strike, Manica Diamonds coach Jairos Tapera has refused to be fooled by the latest in a series of strike actions at the Harare giants.

Tapera actually believes the hyped strike action is part of mind games on the part of Dynamos ahead of tomorrow’s match.

“We don’t know about all that; what we are sure of is that we will face a Dynamos side that is capable of winning the Chibuku Super Cup as they did last year.

“We will not be fooled into believing all that because we know what Dynamos can do when it comes to big matches,” said Tapera.

“It’s unfortunate we don’t have one of our key players Thubelihle Jubane who is in the national team preparing for the CHAN qualifiers.

“We tried to withdraw him but ZIFA didn’t accept our application. It’s very unfortunate because we needed all our players for a big game like this one,” added Tapera.