admin
Tadious Manyepo Sports Reporter
WEBSTER Tafa is just 14-years-old.
He is wandering back and forth in search of a bright future.
Here and there, he helps out his widowed mother Sportsia Mupinga sell peanut butter at Chipadze market in Bindura.
He has to do it because this is not just where the family’s bread is buttered but that’s how Mupinga raises tuition for all her four kids. Tafa is not that bright at school.
But he is showing glimpses of brilliance in football. The family throws their weight behind him but they cannot afford the necessities.
SOS Bindura Children’s Home adopted him. But they can only pay his school fees.
This is 2008 and the country is experiencing biting economic hardships.
The Children’s Home deserves a pat on the back given the obtaining problems.
Sport and its tools are luxury.
Tafa has a burning passion for the game.
He trains in his school uniform, barefoot.
There is no doubting his potential.
But for now, he has to stay put in the Mashonaland Central provincial capital.
He has to hone his skills, albeit under amateur supervision.
With time, Tafa, just like most of his peers, begins to see no future in football.
They are losing interest and slowly divorcing with the game at Chipadze High School.
They have grown together, thrown everything into the game and given their all.
But there seems to be no opportunities given their lack of proper exposure.
Tafa can rather save his energy and begins to occasionally bunk training sessions even when there is a flourishing academy at the school. Coincidentally, his cousin Goliath Kufandirori is busy searching for Tafa’s potential suitors in Harare.
The idea is to place him at any professional academy in the capital which can then give him a scholarship.
Black Rhinos and Gunners are on top of the list. The go to nurseries.
First, Tafa is absorbed into the Black Rhinos system then for some reason, he switches to Gunners.
But he can’t secure a place at any school in Harare. Subsequently he misses close to two months of schooling. His mother is bitter and makes the short trip to Harare to fetch him.
“At that point, I decided that Webster wouldn’t play football again. I was frustrated that he was in Harare just jumping from one football academy to the other while others were at school,” said his mother Mupinga.
“I travelled to Harare and took him back to Bindura. I was fed up and he had to concentrate on school”.
Tafa is equally fed up.
“That was in 2012 and once my mother took me to Bindura, I decided not to play football again.
“Surely, football wasn’t giving me as much as I gave the game. We agreed with my mother to turn our back on the game and we did,” said Tafa.
“I went back to school and I was now concentrating on my books more…”.
Somehow his mother changes her heart.
She brings him a pair of football boots on his birthday.
“I was puzzled because as a family we had taken a position,” said Tafa.
“Then my mom, who will forever be my heroine, sat me down and said I should go back to football.
“Armed with my new boots, I gladly retraced my path to the game. I never looked back again”. With Tafa walking tall in Chipadze Academy colours, Bindura University in the second division take him on board in 2015. Just a year on, Prime Rangers in Division One took notice and enticed the talented defender. A year on, ambitious Mushowani Stars signed him.
And the man who is affectionately known as “Jita” leads the team into the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League.
But they couldn’t stand the top-flight heat, thanks to some financial problems facing the owners.
And the chop.
But Tafa, just like Evans Katema, Clive Dzingai, Eriya Mafirenyika, Sylon Chikwerengwe and Clemence Gobvu can’t go down.
“I then joined CAPS United on a two-year contract in 2020. And Covid-19 hit the season and I only got to play in the Chibuku Super Cup in 2021 during which I sustained a nasty knee injury.
“During my recovery, I was offered a contract by Simba Bhora who were in Division One and I agreed.
“We got promoted last year and I should say I am enjoying my game in the league this season”.
Although Simba Bhora are not performing very well in the league, Tafa has been the most outstanding figure in their team, partnering Parts on Jaure at the heart of their defence.
He has played all the 12 games so far this season and several teams are understood to have officially inquired about his availability.
Kufandirori, who has remained Tafa’s manager, said he is not surprised with the defender’s progress.
“I am an education-first person, that’s why I was in agreement when Tafa went back to Bindura to continue with his education after failing to secure a place in Harare,” said Kufandirori.
“But I was a bit taken aback by his decision to leave the game after the Harare disappointment.
“I am happy we managed to convince him to play on and here he is. I am not surprised at all with how he is doing his job. He is a talented player with a bright future.
“Football has also changed his life and I am happy for the role that I played and continue to play in his career”.
Online Reporter