adminVeronica Gwaze
FROM a tender age, Auckland Queens Football Club Defender-cum-Striker Moleen Murandu’s dream was to become a journalist.
Everyone is entitled to dream and so was Murandu. It was her fantasy, because something intervened and she found herself on the football pitch – playing professional soccer, instead.
Murandu’s life was overshadowed by a dark cloud; in 1997, she lost her mother, Annah Murandu. Then tragedy struck again a year later when her father, Crybert Katsvanda, died too.
Orphaned at a tender age and being an only child, she grew up with her grandmother, Alice Tomu, in a remote area of Madziva, Shamva District.
She attended Nyamaropa Primary School before proceeding to Chidembo.
“At first I wished to be a journalist, I would imagine myself on the television screen and smile to myself,” she recalls.
Growing up in a difficult environment meant assisting her grandmother, taking up odd jobs around the community to put food on the table. The result of these hardships sometimes meant failing to attend school consistently, let alone spare some time for study.
If ever she made it to school, she had to walk nearly 20 kilometres to get to school.
However, whenever she made it to school, in the afternoons she would take to the school grounds, where she watched as others played sports.
Later, she decided to try out for female soccer. It was here that she was to make a name for herself.
In no time, she became a regular on the first 11 of the school team.
“I began to make it a point that I would not miss a training session whether or not I made it for my classes.
“The pitch became my refreshing space. I even found friends there. It felt like I had siblings and a family,” she says.
In 2012, she was spotted by Auckland Queens FC coach, Jerrymike Gumbo, at a Nash provincial tournament.
Later she was to sign for the Bindura-based club before she moved to stay at the club house.
“At first it was just about playing for fun and here I was lucky, getting a club to play for. They gave me accommodation and had me transferred to a better school — Herman Gmeiner.
“At home, life was tough…,” she pauses as tears threaten to spill.
For eight years, she has remained loyal to the team to become one of the senior players.
Some clubs have approached her but the defender remains loyal to the club that she says transformed her life story.
Now that she is in a better space at the clubhouse in Bindura, Murandu has not forgotten her background. Murandu uses her earnings to provide for her grandmother.
“I used to help my grandmother with the little I got from soccer but since Covid-19 halted our games. I am stuck,” she explains.
“Life is tough for her and I am also realising that my intentions of saving up for self-sustaining projects that will help me go back to school may have to wait longer than I wished.”
Murandu’s plan was to go back to school and finish off her outstanding Ordinary Level subjects.
She had hoped that proceeds from her soccer would help raise funds for poultry and horticulture projects that would in turn help her go back to school.
On the pitch, she wishes to feature for the Mighty Warriors.
Coach Gumbo remembers the day they noticed Murandu at the Nash provincial games.
“We used to travel across Mashonaland Central scouting for players. One day we noticed a vicious and full-of-energy Murandu, who played for Chidembo School then.
“We later learnt that she had to walk 20km daily to and from school. We signed her on and had her transfer to Herman Gmeiner as she was staying at our clubhouse,” he says.
“She is one of the loyal players and when she plays you can see emotions; she is always curious to make the club earn a status.
“Above all, she is a hard-working defender.”
Online Reporter