Online Reporter
Lovemore Dube
BENJANI Mwaruwari, Jaggerson Dlamini, Sautso Phiri, Ozzie Sibanda, Johnstone Shumba, Tinashe Mukoma Nemangwe and Zenzo Moyo were terrific Highlanders juniors’ strikers who tormented opponents with cunning ability.
They were hotshots and many thought they were destined for the stars.
Only Moyo and Mwaruwari made it big.
Moyo won two championships with Highlanders, top-scored and later played in Cyprus Greece.
Mwaruwari played in South Africa, France, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Yesterday Mwaruwari met his former teammate Nemangwe after decades.
They were in the Highlanders juniors in 1995.
“Benjie was one of my best friends, he was a good striker, timing and everything, he was non-segregatory, it’s one of the things I liked about him from 1995-1996, otherwise our combination was going to be one of the best,” said Nemangwe who was forced out of the game because of injury, while some of his teammates flourished locally and abroad, eventually playing for the late Riot Ncube’s Stops Camp and Bulawayo Arsenal.
Nemangwe said Mwaruwari used to score for the juniors for fun, being a regular hat-trick scorer.
“I wish I had played with him up to Premiership,” said Nemangwe who is into electrical contracting in East Africa.
Asked about how good Nemangwe was in Ali Dube’s juniors, Mwaruwari had this to say: “At that time at Highlanders we were all good players, we were about five or six good players. I loved playing with everyone”
“Our partnership had Mukoma, Sau (Sautso), Johnstone (Shumba), Jagger, Ozzie and Zenzo, it was nice,” said the new Highlanders coach at the Bosso presser where he met media for the first time since the club’s return from pre-season camp in Botswana.
Nemangwe hung around the Bosso circles up to 2003 and after injury he left, having failed to impress Eddie May, the Highlanders coach.
