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Eddie Chikamhi
Senior Sports Reporter
PREMIERSHIP football giants Dynamos are today set to unveil the committee that will be tasked with steering the club’s 60th anniversary celebrations set for next year.
DeMbare, who were formed in 1963, are looking to use the milestone as a springboard to bounce back as the leading club in the country.
The Harare giants had a false start to their preparations last week when they had to postpone the committee unveiling ceremony.
They cannot afford to let the milestone pass in silence after they failed to organise the Golden Jubilee celebrations when the club turned 50 years, in 2013.
The Glamour Boys, the country’s most popular and successful club, paid dearly for the deficiencies in planning in 2013 when the Golden Jubilee passed without the glitz which should be associated with such a milestone.
They had a marketing committee in place, led by former club chairman Ignatius Pamire. The four-member committee, which also had Lloyd Hunda, Spencer Manguwa and Enock Jokomo, was supposed to work with a private company called Achievers Marketing to spearhead the process.
Sadly, the Jubilee celebrations never took off, despite the backing of their sponsors then, BancABC. But, 10 years later, the Harare giants appear determined to make amends, with the support from current principal sponsors, Sakunda Holdings.
Dynamos were formed in 1963, after a group of black players from erstwhile topflight teams Salisbury United and Salisbury City came together to challenge the racial discrimination they had experienced during the colonial era.
The club owe a lot to their founding fathers who included the late Obadiah “Wasu” Sarupinda, Patrick “Amato” Dzvene, Ephraim Mpariwa, Richard Chiminya, Nathan Maziti, Josiah Akende, Jairos Banda, Danny Bricks, Alois Mesikano, Sam Dauya and Bernard Marriot.
Marriot is the current board chairman while most of the founders are now late.
Over the years, DeMbare have won a record 21 league titles, and several other local trophies.
They have also been the country’s flag bearers on the continent. The Glamour Boys have a CAF Champions League silver medal, from the 1998 final, which they lost in controversial circumstances to Cote d’Ivoire side, Asec Mimosas.
Dynamos also produced arguably the greatest ever player to have graced Zimbabwean football stadiums in the form of George Shaya, a five-time Soccer Star of the Year award winner.
The late Freddy Mkwesha, who played in Portugal for 13 years, was the first Zimbabwean export to Europe while the first player to ply his trade out of Zimbabwe also came from Dynamos in the form of Patrick Dzvene, who in 1964 played for Ndola United in Zambia.
DeMbare have groomed and produced legends, including the country’s most successful football coaches Sunday Chidzambwa, Callisto Pasuwa and the late David Mandigora, and have moulded their institution into a typical beacon of success in Zimbabwean football.
However, success appears to have eluded them in the last few years. Their last major title came in 2014 under Pasuwa, who is now doing wonders in Malawi.
Dynamos won four league titles in succession between 2011 and 2014 under Pasuwa. The former midfielder has continued with the magic touch in Malawi where he has also won four titles on the bounce and several other titles with Nyasa Big Bullets.
Back home, DeMbare have played in the shadows of FC Platinum, who completed their own four-peat this season, to become only the third team after Dynamos and Highlanders to achieve the feat.
Most DeMbare’s supporters had stopped coming to the stadium in the just-ended season claiming their team was playing “boring football”.
Online Reporter