Online Reporter
Ronald Mpofu, [email protected]
PLUMTREE Wanderers are restructuring with a view of coming up with a solution that could give the border town a second team in the Zifa Southern Region Division One League.
A number of resignations and transfers have left the club with a mammoth task in assembling both the executive and coaching department.
Alongside Mainline who are in the Southern Region League, they are the only teams in a town that gave Zimbabwe Black Horrors, Chibuku semi-finalists in 1979, players like Lemmy Mnenekwa and Onias Musana, who are both deceased.
Musana played for Moroka Swallows.
Menzies Manka, the club’s director, said the restructuring is important to have the project relevant and successful.
He hinted at apathy being another factor that has kept the club in the Second Division against his vision of bringing more Division One action to the border town.
“We have been hit by a number of challenges, and overall, there are few people with the right football passion in Plumtree. Another challenge is that Plumtree is a small town with few coaches; if you lose one, getting a replacement is always a tall order. We always want to give first priority to locals,” said Manka who believes Mainline is giving youths a podium to showcase their talents for possible bigger paying professional football contracts in Zimbabwe and beyond borders.
Founded in 2023, the club will be under new coaches and management for the 2026 season, according to Manka.
The director, who is based in Canada, said a good management team can see his and the players’ dream of promotion fulfilled.
“There is so much talent in Plumtree, so many good players have gone through Plumtree,” said Manka.
With Wanderers playing in a more competitive environment than social soccer, the players spend more time at training and travelling to matches, which has helped the boys stay away from social ills.
Manka said he was surrendering the team to the community to run as he has no energy to be travelling every now and then to see if things are okay at the club.
“I want Plumtree to run the club and to coach their own sons while I help with resources,” said Manka.
Ariel Sibanda, Dumiso Vundla, Wallace Magalane and Ronald Sibanda are some of the known players to have emerged from the border town.
