adminwith the Zimbabwe Prison Services amid indications that he will be working with their Zifa Northern Region Division One team, Flame Lily, while awaiting new Premiership offers.
Pasuwa, who was meant to be Mutasa’s assistant at the start of the year, began his duties as Dynamos coach yesterday after being appointed caretaker coach on Monday.
Mutasa and Pasuwa worked together at Kiglon (Eastern Region Division One and later Premiership), Highway, CAPS FC and Shooting Stars.
When Mutasa was offered the chance to succeed Elvis Chiweshe at Dynamos in December last year, he intended to have Pasuwa as his assistant.
But this never materialised.
Pasuwa argued that what the Dynamos executive was offering him did not meet his expectations.
Reports indicate that he had been offered a monthly salary of US$300.
In the end, Mutasa settled for Ralph Kawondera. And when the Dynamos executive met with Pasuwa at East 24 in the capital on Monday, while Mutasa was technically still in his job, there were suggestions that this was tantamount to backstabbing Samaita.
The Dynamos executive only informed Mutasa of their decision to fire him together with Kawondera and Masimba Dinyero on Tuesday – a day after agreeing terms with Pasuwa.
But Mutasa yesterday refused to criticise Pasuwa. He instead offered him all the support.
In an exclusive column for our sister paper, H-Metro, Mutasa said Pasuwa remained his brother and best friend.
It is the ONLY media statement issued by Mutasa since the dramatic developments at Dynamos.
Mutasa will be remembered for being only the SECOND Dynamos coach to complete a league double over bitter rivals CAPS United in the history of the Premiership.
“I’ve no problems with Pasuwa taking up the job even before we had been told that we had been fired.
“It’s very difficult for anyone to turn down an opportunity to lead the biggest football institution in the country.
“Like myself, Pasuwa has been with Dynamos as a player and he understands what it means being part of the club. His coming in had no link to the executive’s decision to fire us.
“Although it will be easy for people to try and use this to divide us, I don’t think it will work because he remains my brother and best friend.
“At some point in his coaching career Pasuwa had to be his own man and not be in my shadow. I believe this is the time and the opportunity came at the best possible club, which is a dream for most coaches.
“Actually I’m happy that the job has stayed in the family and I would want to wish him the best for the remaining games. He knows what’s expected of him and I believe he will do a good job,” wrote Mutasa.
The former talismanic midfielder believes he had done a good job given the circumstances he worked under.
He rubbished the argument by the Dynamos executive that he had failed to meet conditions of his contract.
” . . . the contract they talk of was drawn up and signed LAST YEAR when Dynamos still thought they had players like Thabani Kamusoko, Ashley Rambanapasi, Khumbulani Banda, Benjamin Marere, Evans Gwekwerere and other seniors.
“When these players then left the club at the start of the year things changed and the then chairman Farai Munetsi and secretary Oliver Manyau – as learned people – acknowledged that the circumstances had changed.
“They told us that they were now looking at giving us up to 2013 to come up with a solid Dynamos team that would challenge for everything as we were now starting from scratch. This was also coinciding with the club’s 50th Anniversary. Unfortunately the other executive members like Kenny Mubaiwa would abscond and the contracts were never amended.
“But that then explains why NOTHING happened to us after 10 games even if we had failed to get the 23 points in the contract. Munetsi appreciated the changes in circumstances and never made it an issue.
“But what is clear now is that the other executive members wanted to use it against us and once there were changes to the executive they were quick to revisit the issue of the first 10 games.”
Mutasa believes that the new Dynamos executive never wanted them to succeed and even suspects that they have been deliberately delaying the clearance of Cuthbert Malajila to start playing.
“. . . we will not be surprised if Malajila is to start playing this Sunday because we just could not understand the delays in getting his deal finalised yet we were clear on our targets.
“We made it very clear at the opening of the transfer window in July that we needed Malajila and Peter Ngwenya to strengthen our strikeforce but up until we left, they had not been cleared.
“We are forced to question the sincerity of the executive on the issue and it’s easy to suspect that they knew that we would win matches once those two strikers started playing yet they wanted us fired. We have the third best defence in the league and the only problem with the team was the strikeforce and it is something that even our father Sunday Chidzambwa noted after watching us play Chicken Inn at Rufaro.
“He was quick to recommend that we buy about two experienced strikers if we were to be competitive in the second half of the season and that’s when we made it clear to the executive that we needed to secure Ngwenya, Malajila and Tendai Nyamadzawo.
“No offers were made for Nyamadzawo until he left and we had to leave before we could use Malajila or Ngwenya. It is very clear that the executive was not really committed to our cause and the club was even sacrificed in the process.
“But being Dynamos, what goes around comes around. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the supporters who understood our plight and gave us all the support even under difficult times.
“I also want to thank the players who did so well in their first season at that level of the game, I believe they are a solid foundation for Dynamos.”
- Mutasa also talks about his suspicions on goalkeepers’ coach Tichaona Diya’s motives on the technical bench, the issue of juju v Madzibaba Daniel, the team’s exit from the Champions League, the historic league double over CAPS United among many issues.
Bongani Ndlovu