adminONE of our favourite days, as we were growing up in the compounds of the goldfields of Chakari in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, was Tuesday night when the company that operated the gold mine, where our parents worked, would screen a free movie for the kids.
The kids meant everyone who was still at school, and was old enough to be allowed by his or her parents to go to movies without needing the company, or helping hand, of the fathers and mothers.
Thursday nights were reserved for the adults and our big brothers, who had long left school, would join the fathers of this mining town, those lucky enough not to be on night shift that week, for a night of fun watching the free movie supplied by the company.
We were barred from the Thursday movies, and we never cared to protest, given that growing up in a mining compound, like the Chakari of the ‘70s and ‘80s, meant that you were conditioned that you never questioned what the elders said or did.
Interestingly, the viewership of the Thursday night movies was exclusively male, given that it was taboo for the females in such a conservative society to be seen going to a movie that started at 8pm, and unlike the Tuesday night shows, beer was allowed in these sessions.
The two films to be shown that week would come every Monday, at around 3pm, on a Colley Hall truck from Kadoma and, such was our obsession with the movies in that age of innocence, that it became our tradition every Monday, after school, to wait by the main road that linked our little town and Kadoma.
As if on cue, at around 3pm every Monday, the Colley Hall truck would emerge from a distance and we would explode into celebrations, waving to the driver as he passed by, happy that our date with a free film show the next day had been confirmed.
The films were large reels, which were mounted on a projector, which was controlled by a guy called Samson, whose day job was to train hard every day in the local stadium, in a bid to try and perfect his running skills, in the marathon, so that he could win us medals at the Chamber of Mines athletics meets.
Samson was the first professional athlete that I got to know in my life.
The hall, from where we watched the movie, whose signal would be sent from the projector to a giant white screen, was also the Big Bar, where they sold opaque beer, while the up-market Chakari Country Club, which had a golf course, squash court and cricket pitch, was for the whites.
Given the lack of alternative entertainment channels open for us during those days, football and movies became a big part of our lives and every Tuesday night we would converge at the Big Bar for a weekly dosage of the free show courtesy of the firm that ran our little town.
So we got to know of Chuck Norris and Peter Fonda, of Sisko Kid and Bruce Lee, of Snake In The Eagle’s Shadow and Fists Of Fury, of The Big Boss and Way Of The Dragon, of Enter The Dragon and Game of Death.
But there was one movie that stood out, which was our favourite, and we would request it again and again and watch it again and again.
The movie was called The Wild Geese, a British film that had been made in 1978, and whose plot was centred on a group of mercenaries who were brought to Central Africa to try and rescue a jailed leader, being held in a remote prison, and due to be killed by the man who has deposed him from power.
It starred Richard Burton, Stewart Granger, Roger Moore, Richard Harris and Hardy Kruger.
The Wild Geese was about power, money and drugs.
We didn’t know it then that the movie that we so loved had courted so much controversy across the world then because it had been shot in apartheid South Africa and the town where the mercenaries finally landed, in that film, was our own Kariba.
We didn’t know that the movie had been inspired by speculation that followed the 1968 landing of a mysterious plane, in the then Rhodesia, which was said to have been carrying mercenaries and an African leader believed then to be Moise Tshombe of the DRC.
We didn’t know then, too, that Roger Moore, our favourite movie star, had been widely criticised around the world for his decision to make two previous movies in apartheid South Africa.
In our age of innocence, we simply loved the Wild Geese and loved Roger Moore and we kept sending numerous requests to Samson to keep ordering our favourite film.
The Wild Geese In Harare
Yesterday I went to the Wild Geese Lodge, an up-market centre that offers exclusive accommodation and conference facilities, set against the background of beautiful trees where a variety of wildlife species roam freely and provide a spectacular touch to the whole place. The owners of the Wild Geese Lodge pride themselves, on their online page, in offering “you the best of both worlds – a tranquil escape from today’s fast paced world.
“Accommodation at Wild Geese Lodge is set within a private wildlife sanctuary offering thirty acres of indigenous garden and savannah overlooking the spectacular Mazowe Hills, yet conveniently located within fifteen minutes from Harare city centre.
“Guests at Wild Geese Lodge in Harare can take the opportunity to walk in the savannah surrounded by a diverse population of antelope, majestic sable, zebra, eland and kudu – perfect for wildlife photography or bird enthusiasts.”
It’s a beautiful place, far away from the madding crowd, and as I surveyed the woods and watched the animals, I couldn’t help but get a flood of memories, which took me back to the days of my innocence when the movie Wild Geese was a staple part of my entertainment diet.
There was no Roger Moore yesterday and neither were there any mercenaries dropping from their chartered plane into the jungles of a Central African country on a mission whose sights and sounds became a symbol of what we believed to be a classic in terms of movie-making.
But, amid the emotions evoked by the name Wild Geese, and the spectacular, if not familiar surroundings to the images from that movie, I could not help it but find a link to the events that were happening yesterday and the movie that Samson used to show us from a projector.
Yesterday’s function, in a big way, marked the arrival of people who were going to free our beloved Premiership from the clutches of poverty and help it take the first steps back into the light after years of reeling from under-funding and lack of corporate partners.
Yes, the people who were coming on board were not mercenaries like Roger Moore and his team in the Wild Geese movie, but they were coming in to perform exactly the same role that Moore and his crew did in the movie – help their target to freedom.
After years of suffering, when its life was gradually being squeezed from its lungs by lack of funds, the Premiership could now embrace a new era when it was going into bed, with a major corporate brand, in a union that was set to change its face forever.
After years of crying out for help, with no one listening to their pleas, the domestic Premiership was now striking a deal with the sponsor who was there when it all started, back then in 1962 and 16 years before the movie Wild Geese had been made, and moving confidently into the future.
Delta Beverages, whose Castle Lager brand was there as the principal sponsor of football when the first organised national top-flight league was launched in this country, yesterday chose the Wild Geese Lodge on the outskirts of the capital to announce their return into the national game.
For a change, it felt refreshing to attend a function where something good was being said, and done, about Zimbabwean football and Castle Lager’s return to our Premiership, as the flagship sponsor, is a big deal that could provide the starting point, in this game’s freedom, from the poverty trap that has haunted it for years.
The smiles told it all, from the players to the administrators, from the club owners to the club officials, from the fans to the journalists – yes, oh yes, our Premiership had been freed and given a breath of fresh air to enable it to be strong enough to face future challenges.
They had all watched with resignation, wondering whether they were cursed, as Motor Action won a riveting battle for league championship honours last year but, for all their troubles, including an epic 30-game battle that was only decided by goal difference, they didn’t get anything to celebrate their crowning moment.
The Premiership was unbranded and people like Eric Rosen, who had been pouring money into his club since 1999 when he bought the Blackpool franchise, were spending a fortune, to play in the domestic Premiership, with nothing coming into their coffers as dividends for their status.
The players were disgruntled and a lot of them left for Botswana, not because the league there offered them better football, but because it guaranteed them a meal on the table – thanks to its sponsorship packages with a number of companies.
Others left for Swaziland, not because the league there provided them with a platform to better their careers, but simply because they would make more money and take care of their families.
Some left for Mozambique, others for Malawi, some went to the DRC and the good ones, like Knowledge Musona, Nyasha Mushekwi and Method Mwanjali, went to South Africa’s Super Diski.
Those who stayed were either trying to make an impression so that they could move, like Ashley Rambanapasi, or they were already in the process of moving like Dylan Chivandire.
The fans knew that the best players were leaving in their droves, that the game had changed, that our clubs had become poorer, that the days when they could afford to bring in Ian Bakala and Laughter Chilembe were long gone, and that the quality of the game on offer was now compromised.
So some began to stay at home because there was nothing special that could come from going to support Dynamos or CAPS United or Highlanders and attendance figures plummeted, the smaller clubs which used to balance their books when they played the big boys were now vulnerable because even those matches were now loss-making games, and some of the teams collapsed.
The sad story came from Stan Kudenga, the Harare banker who owned Eagles, when he revealed that he used US$160 000 last year alone, in running his team in the Premiership, and got nothing in return except a bank balance that was in the red.
He couldn’t afford it any more and, when he sold his franchise, it was just for US$16 0000, showing how desperate he was to just offload it.
Yesterday, at the Wild Geese, our Premiership took the first steps to freedom in a journey, back into the light, which promises to be exciting.
The domestic Premiership rediscovered itself.
The Save Our Soccer Campaign
As our Premiership embraced its freedom yesterday, I could not help but think about all the gallant sons and daughters of this country who made that spirited campaign to try and persuade Econet Wireless to return to into the trenches and sponsor the domestic Premiership.
Alois Bunjira was at the heart of the campaign as he co-ordinated the Facebook page created by Tsungai Albert Mavambe to try and rally as many fans as possible to make Econet Wireless feel their campaign.
The supporters wanted the country’s biggest mobile phone services company to plough some of its profits into the sponsorship of the local top-flight league.
The blue chip firm, had posted after tax profits in excess of US$100 million in its last financial year, and it came under increasing public pressure to invest some of its earnings into a domestic Premiership rich in talent, but terribly short on funding.
Econet had already poured significant financial resources into Zimbabwe Cricket and was among companies that played a major role in the revival of the Zimbabwe Open golf tournament, but they hadn’t been involved in local football since cutting ties with the sport during a rocky period five years ago.
Econet were forced to pull out amid a plethora of problems that ranged from allegations of ambush marketing to the bad publicity that followed the boardroom drama.
CAPS United’s sponsorship deal with NetOne triggered the turbulence and when Zifa were sucked into the drama, leading to the suspension of the entire Premiership leadership on the basis that they had failed to furnish the association with details of their Econet contract, everything exploded into mayhem.
But, five years down the line, there was a surging feeling in the domestic game that the time had come for Econet Wireless to reconsider their position, in line with the huge investments being poured into football by similar companies around the world, and revive their marriage with the domestic league.
The Herald started the Save Our Soccer Campaign with a passionate appeal to Econet Wireless Zimbabwe chief executive officer Douglas Mboweni to reconsider his company’s decision to divorce themselves from domestic football sponsorship.
The campaign to persuade the company to have a change of heart continued to gather pace and it found its way into the social networking forums like Facebook.
The catchphrase on the Buddie recharge card, “You’ve got a friend,” couldn’t have been a more ironic tag to the campaign being waged by Mavambe and Bunjira who described their group as one that aimed “to encourage Econet Wireless to sponsor the PSL and justify why the company should do so.”
Econet Wireless were forced to react and the chief executive of their Zimbabwe operations, Douglas Mboweni, spelt out his company’s position, in terms of their commitment to social development programmes, and made it clear that – in the meantime – domestic football was not part of that agenda.He wrote to Zifa president Cuthbert Dube and revealed that his company had invested heavily in trying to improve the education and health sectors of the country and, coupled with the huge cost of a massive network expansion programme bankrolled by debt, it did not have the financial resources right now to channel to football. Mboweni chronicled how his company, in its previous dance with the Premiership, “encountered what we considered to be deliberate interference with the sponsorship, culminating in our Board being forced into making the decision to withdraw the sponsorship package.
“Econet ploughed in more than US$7 million in these activities in the last financial year alone and continues to invest more to try and address the needs of the less privileged in our societies.
“Upon withdrawal from the football sponsorship, our Board directed that the budget that had been earmarked for football sponsorship should be re-directed to funding social responsibility programmes and initiatives that cater for the less privileged in our society.”
Mboweni chronicled his company’s investment in social development programmes since moving away from football in which they were pouring funds into the Capernaum Trust, which looks after 30 000 orphans and under-privileged children, the Joshua Nkomo Scholarship Fund and the National Health Care Trust which was instrumental in the reopening of the University of Zimbabwe Medical School after it had been closed owing to shortage of resources.The Econet boss also questioned why his company was being targeted.
“It is against the background of our extensive involvement in the community that we also wish to express our reservations with the campaign that has been launched in some of the national media, whereby Econet is being implored to sponsor soccer as an obligation to the community,” wrote Mboweni.
“We do hope that you will now be able to assist us communicate Econet’s position correctly. We also wish to add that there are other profitable organisations that are doing equally well, or performing even better, than we are.
“Some of these organisations have been in football before but we have not witnessed a similar campaign in the national media directed at them.
“We therefore wonder why Econet has been singled out. We do not know any social responsibility programmes run by other corporates that is at the scale and magnitude of Econet’s involvement in the community. It is quite possible that, if approached, they may well be able to assist.”
Our Prayers Have Been Answered
Yes, Econet were right. There were other big sponsors in the country and there was need to also approach them rather than just pile the pressure on Econet.
The key part in Mboweni’s letter, which cheered the spirits of all of the guys who were in the trenches fighting for the domestic Premiership, was contained in this paragraph:
“WE ALSO WISH TO ADD THAT THERE ARE OTHER PROFITABLE ORGANISATIONS THAT ARE DOING EQUALLY WELL, OR PERFORMING EVEN BETTER, THAN WE ARE. SOME OF THESE ORGANSATIONS HAVE BEEN IN FOOTBALL BEFORE BUT WE HAVE NOT WITNESSED A SIMILAR CAMPAIGN IN THE NATIONAL MEDIA DIRECTED AT THEM . . . IT IS QUITE POSSIBLE THAT, IF APPROACHED, THEY MAY WELL BE ABLE TO ASSIST.”
So here we are today Alois and Albert, and all the guys who rallied behind the cause, who supported the battle, even when others found a weakness to criticise all of us for ambushing this and that company, who never gave up even when Econet said NO.
The fact that we created so much noise about it all, forcing big organisations to start talking to us, even via the Zifa president, was in itself a victory rather than a defeat.
The revolution had been started, our campaign was now being discussed in the corridors of power in the big organisations, it was being felt on the desks of the chief executive officers, noone could ignore it any longer and, while we might have failed to win back Econet’s hearts, we spread the message.
Together, walking hand in hand, we fought for our players because we knew that they had the talent and the only reason why they were not inspired to entertain us, week in and week out, to the best of their talents, was because there were no incentives for them to do their best.
We fought for Eric Rosen and Amai Rosen because we felt that it was unfair, for the big companies to just watch from a distance, while this couple pumped a fortune into a game that cheered the spirits of the very people who were the major market of these major firms.
We fought for Joel Sengeredo because we had seen him lose everything that he had – a thriving company that made profit in millions, a lifestyle that was consistent with his position as chief executive of that big firm, an extended family that banked on him to provide for them and workers who believed in him to keep them employed.
He was pursuing his football dream when he lost it all, pouring a fortune into his Shooting Stars project in 2006, creating a real model of a professional football team whose coach drove the latest VW Golf as a company car, whose players lived a good life and who felt football was a game that could be loved.
He didn’t know that the economy would turn for the worse in 2007, that things would go from bad to worse in 2008, but Joel didn’t give up, even as some of his friends abandoned him and fate dealt him a cruel blow when he lost his beloved son in a boating accident, because – as he said this week – he had long passed the point of no return.
Five years later, he still has his Shooting Stars project, he has helped give us a national team defender called Daniel Veremu, and – for all the battering that he has received from this game – he remains bullish, and hopeful, for a better tomorrow that he has even sent his team to a two-week training camp in Kariba.
To us, these were the heroes who needed help, and we felt the companies in this country had the capacity to offer that helping hand.
We felt there was something very unfair with companies that had a mass market, who knew that their customers had a passion for football, but who were not prepared to help the game that cheers the spirits of the people who plough profits into their coffers.
The good thing is that our prayers have been answered, one year later, and noone will ever claim that our voices were powerless because the domestic football landscape has changed forever.
Thank you Delta Beverages for coming on board and, as we embrace the big boys, let’s not forget BanABC for standing firm in its support for the Premiership in the past three years.
The good thing about bonding with companies like Delta Beverages is that the marriage has the potential of attracting others who have been waiting on the wings.
Yes, those companies who will today say that, if Delta Beverages could go into bed with the Premiership, then there must be something good about such a partnership.
Thank you to all the fans who were there for the game when it needed them most.
We might not have succeeded that year but the revolution had been started and there was no way back.
Alois mate, this one is for you, too.
Corrupt African Football
So Danny Jordaan, the first African to successfully organise a Fifa World Cup, was deemed not good enough by the cartel at Caf for a place on the Fifa executive committee during the elections held in Sudan on Wednesday.
The West Africans, who have Issa Hayatou in charge, were given another dance on the Fifa executive when Jacques Ouma, the president of the Cote d’Ivoire Football Federation, was elected ahead of Jordaan.
Aouma polled 35 votes in the poll while Jordaan came a distant fourth, in a race where the first two would win the Fifa seats, as he grabbed only 10 votes.
Suketu Patel, the Cosafa president who is from Seychelles, even polled more votes than Jordaan as he grabbed 15 in the cotest.
Algerian Football Federation chief Mohamed Raouraoua won the race when he received 39 votes.
Basically what Caf said in Sudan was that they don’t need new leadership and they don’t care about what South Africa did in hosting Africa’s first World Cup finals and making it a success story that put the name of our continent in good light.
The message from Caf was that they were not ready for change, ready to embrace new and young leaders, and I believe that Hayatou had a hand in all this after Jordaan was reported to have said that he would eventually challenge the Cameroonian for the Caf presidency.
Sadly, Africa has lost another good opportunity to have a dynamic leader in the Fifa corridors of power simply because the thugs at Caf are not yet ready to change and they want to continue to enjoy flying around the world and, if they are not caught by British newspaper sting operations, receive whatever they get as presents.
We lost the chance to have a leader who was ready to challenge Fifa on why Europe, which has fewer countries than Africa, has more seats on the executive of the world football governing body than us.
Instead we will have the same old and useless leaders who are content in what we have, as a continent, because they are the ones who enjoy the VVIP treatment as Fifa executive committee members.
I believe the time has come now for Southern and Eastern Africa to go into full-scale rebellion and tell the West and North of Africa that they can keep their Corrupt Africa Football and we will have our own body to represent our affairs.
It’s unfair guys that we don’t have a man from the English-speaking bloc of this continent on the Fifa executive committee as a representative of Africa while the North and Western parts of the continent have all the representation.
Is Caf only for the Arabic and Francophone Africa?
If a man who has successfully organised a World Cup finals and, in my own humble judgment, did more in just a few months last year, to uplift African football, than what Hayatou has done in decades, is humiliated in such fashion, who then from our part of the continent will ever get into the Fifa corridors?
Don’t worry Danny Jordaan.
The world knows that you’re a calpable leader, probably the best football leader to emerge on our continent, and while the Caf cartel can delay your rise into the corridors of power, they definitely can’t stop it.
I was there in Egypt when Amos Adamu won his seat on the Fifa executive thanks to this West/North Alliance.
That was five years ago. Mali’s Salif Keita, African Footballer of the Year in 1970, was in the running but withdrew from the poll saying his conscience would not allow him to get into a battle that had been corrupted by money.
Four years later Adamu, who won that poll, was out of Fifa after being accused of corruption.
So relax Danny Jordaan, let the band play on, the music is coming to an end very soon.
The Warriors’ And Big Tournaments
So much has been said about Madinda Ndlovu having failed at the recent CHAN finals although his shortcomings, to a large extent, are being dramatised.
Yes, he could have done better, no doubt about that but to suggest that he was hopeless, in his first major tournament in charge of his country, is taking the argument too far.
Madinda and his boys got three points and, when you look at our history in such tournaments, it appears that is what we can achieve as a nation.
2004 Nations Cup Finals – Coach Sunday Chidzambwa
P W D L F A Pts
Cameroon 3 1 2 0 6 4 5
Algeria 3 1 1 1 4 4 4
Egypt 3 1 1 1 3 3 4
ZIMBABWE 3 1 0 2 6 8 3
Results – Zimbabwe 1, Egypt 2; Zimbabwe 3, Cameroon 5; Zimbabwe 2, Algeria 1
2006 Nations Cup Finals – Coach Charles Mhlauri
P W D L F A Pts
Nigeria 3 3 0 0 5 1 9
Senegal 3 1 0 2 3 3 3
Ghana 3 1 0 2 2 3 3
ZIMBABWE 3 1 0 2 2 5 3
Results – Zimbabwe 0, Senegal 2; Zimbabwe 0, Nigeria 2; Zimbabwe 2, Ghana 1
2009 CHAN finals – Coach Sunday Chidzambwa
P W D L F A Pts
Ghana 3 1 2 0 6 3 5
DRC 3 1 1 1 3 4 4
ZIMBABWE 3 0 3 0 3 3 3
Libya 3 0 2 1 1 3 2
Results – Zimbabwe 2, Ghana 2; Zimbabwe 1, DRC 1; Zimbabwe 0, Libya 0
2011 CHAN finals – Coach Madinda Ndlovu
P W D L F A Pts
South Africa 3 3 0 0 6 2 9
Niger 3 2 0 1 2 2 6
ZIMBABWE 3 1 0 2 2 3 3
Ghana 3 0 0 3 1 4 0
Results – Zimbabwe 0, Niger 1, Zimbabwe 1, Ghana 0, Zimbabwe 1, South Africa 2
COMMON DENOMINATOR – THREE POINTS
Paul Gundani and FUZ
Paul Gundani is one of the best defenders to emerge in this country and was part of the Dream Team that Fabisch created in the ‘90s.
A very good guy, he has always lived afar away from controversy and is regarded by many as a role model.
Gundani has been working tirelessly for his fellow players, as the secretary-general of the Footballers Union of Zimbabwe, and he deserves all the support.
But Gundani has to be taught that there is a difference between being a bona-fide representative of the players and being a rebel.
He should be taught that not all labour issues are best solved in the newspapers and he will find that he will make a lot of progress by engaging the club officials and negotiating with them in boardrooms.
In the last few weeks Gundani has turned himself into a militant fellow, who even has the audacity to threaten clubs and their officials using the medium of newspapers, which I believe is not the right way for a representative of workers.
Yes, by shouting the loudest, he might find a few friends but he will realise that, in the long run, it will not help the players.
Not every letter that you write Paul is for public consumption, even though it gives you a name and reminds people that you are still around, because there is this animal called professionalism and you need to learn about it quickly mate.
I know you knew about it on the field as a player but it’s different when you are now in the office. Leave the rebels to the Wild Geese, the movie, and not Wild Geese the beautiful Lodge where our football rediscovered itself yesterday.
Waiona!
Come on United!!!
Chicharitoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
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