Mafu, Ncube suspended

Lovemore Dube

THERE is one King of the Jungle.

In a kraal there is a dominant bull and at Hwange Football Club three existed but results could not match the brains on the bench.

Bongani Mafu and Try Ncube were yesterday suspended indefinitely, leaving Nation Dube to call the shots in the interim. This was announced by club chairman Nairos Deredzai as the club continues with its desperate fight for survival.

It was imminent that the changes would be rung as the club kept on sinking on the table with the last straw being the defeat to Sheasham that eventually saw the executive bolt out from their hot Hwange offices to try and save a sinking ship.

The coaching trio are Caf A level gaffers.

“We had set our coaches targets and results were not coming leaving us with no option to suspend Mafu and Ncube. Obviously the decision was made after a lot of considerations, we had to make an informed decision after gathering information.

“Dube will be the head coach for now and we will continue monitoring how these perform. We now have one person who will make decisions,” said Deredzai.

It was always going to be difficult having Dube, Mafu and Ncube all on the same bench given their track records.

They are all hungry for recognition.

Hwange’s problems may not only be on the field as players are yet to get their signing-on fees with a few having been paid in a manner that left others not happy. Non-payment of signing-on fees to almost half the team is said to be another source of poor results. Hwange has changed coaches and executive members every now and then but have failed to hold under the stewardship of administrator Khumbulani Mbano who is under pressure to ensure systems work better and ensure club survives.

Hwange start life without Mafu and Try who acquired players in the last two years that Dube has inherited.

The last straw in the hat for the club may have been their failure to bring experienced James Kaunda and Dominic Chungwa to add firepower upfront their weakest area.

Instead when Mafu was in Tanzania with Ncube for Caf A lessons, Hwange brought in Pritchard Mpelele who was offloaded by Highlanders at the beginning of the year and failed to impress at Caps, and Hamilton Gomba who appears overawed by the responsibility of getting goals for the club.