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Alois Bunjira Special Correspondent
ON Sunday I went to my boyhood township of Zengeza in Chitungwiza to visit my mother and I was shocked and disappointed by what I observed.
My heart bled.
I wasn’t paying much attention as I entered Zengeza. My mind snapped alive as I entered Dovi Street where I grew up. The road is still as dusty as it was when I was growing up. It was around 2pm and I observed that the street was almost empty except for a few little girls playing pada and others playing nhodo.
This prompted me to do a quick survey. I started driving around the neighbourhood, in and out of the streets. I drove through a total of 12 dusty streets. They were all the same idle streets. Not even in one street did I see a street football match (bhora rechikweshe). No “chikweshe” match in all the 12 streets I surveyed. At 2pm on a Sunday?
I drove to the main football ground by Zengeza 2 Shops. There was virtually no one. I heard there would be a legends football match at 3pm. It was already around 2:30pm. There was no Area Zone match at the local ground? So where were the young boys? Where were the young adults?
Growing up in primary school, the streets would be busy with us playing street football on Sundays, one match after another. Sometimes we would play a local match (against another street team) and for the next match we would go and play against another street, as a select team of our street. That was if we were not playing our local matches for our local junior clubs at the shops ground on the Sunday.
Sometimes we would have played Area Zone football on Saturday and street football on the Sunday. All our junior football kits, for all the teams, were kept at the Zengeza Area Zone Board where we would check the fixtures and collect our playing kit and a ball.
At around 3pm we would rush to watch Area Zone senior football where we had teams like KTS, Mandimika, Dhehwa, Machemedze, Santos, Chitungwiza All Stars (Stewart ”Shutto” Murisa’s father was a defender for this team), Marisa, Hotspurs etc.
Dhehwa vs Kunaka TS was a blockbuster local derby. That is where I grew my love for Lloyd ‘”Samaita” Mutasa. He was dazzling and mesmerising opponents while playing for KTS.
So what happened to street football and interest in football in the young boys? Where were the young boys from the streets? My nephew, who should have been in the street playing football, was seated in the house with my mother watching television.
I asked him why he wasn’t outside playing football and he said: “Hapana wekutamba naye Sekuru. Boys racho haridi bhora iri”. (There’s no-one to play football with uncle. The local boys don’t like football). My heart sank. My nephew actually has his own soccer ball. Kutoshaya wekutamba naye?
When we grew up, everyone played football, including those who were not even good. They were part of the team. Each street team yaitove nemadandara ayo but they would just be accommodated and play because everyone loved football. What happened to this, our (beautiful) game of football? What killed the football interest in the entire generation? Even street football?
Are we then surprised when the biggest football match in the country between Dynamos and Highlanders attract less than 5 000 fans? Have we seen the death of football in the country? What does the future hold when these young people of the future don’t care about football?
How then do we expect them to flock to the stadium to watch football when they don’t even bother about football at this age and already preferring other things? How do we bring back football? Ummmm.
I was heartbroken!! What to do?
** Alois Bunjira is a former Zimbabwe international striker who featured for Darryn T and CAPS United locally before he moved to South Africa where he also plied his trade with different top-flight clubs in that country.
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