adminBy Lovemore Dube Sports Editor
SOCCER by nature is a social interactive forum that knows no –ism.
It is there to provide entertainment and employment to billions and should stay like that. These were the words of Zhuwaki Collins Chabata who joined Highlanders in 1952 when the black and white army was known as Matabeleland Highlanders.
Born to a family of three in Kadoma on 24 April 1933, Chabata joined Highlanders as a teenager at the end of 1952.
He attended United Schools in Makokoba and moved to Mzilikazi Primary School where he completed his Standard Six.
He started playing soccer while still at school, featuring in a role in midfield which he said in those days was known as inside right (Number 8).
Soccer by then was just a pastime with guys meeting once in a while to play for fun.
“We played for the fun of it and nothing else. It was unlike today where people earn a living out of their talents. We played and we had fun, if we got beer at the end of the day it was a bonus but what we played for was pride and to entertain those who came to watch us play,” said Chabata in an interview done mainly in iSiNdebele.
“I have lived in Bulawayo since I was young and I am comfortable speaking even in Ndebele,” said the 80-year-old.
Nicknamed “Whitehorse” because of his complexion, Chabata was inspired by one of his teachers ABC Rusike, a Juba and Bob Mann, a carpentry instructor.
He described Rusike as having been one of the best players of his generation.
Chabata said he had no option but to start playing football with his former schoolmates after his family failed to gather enough resources to enable him to proceed to Wilberforce College in South Africa.
“Having failed to go to South Africa, I then got a job at Enterprise News on Sixth Avenue and Main Street. That is when I started playing soccer for Highlanders.
“We were a group of boys who had grown up together at Makokoba and New Location (Mzilikazi). We joined Highlanders with the likes of Denis Bhejane Dube, Jako Phiri, Tshuma, Scholar and we had one good goalkeeper by the name Solomon Chulu and John Rusty,” said Chabata.
He said as early as 1950, Highlanders was already a cosmopolitan team with people drawn from all ethnic groups among Blacks.
“We had grown together, it was difficult for us to look at each other as people from a certain tribe. School and soccer cut across those divisions. On the field we were one and even went together for drinking after matches and we loved every bit of it.
“While some supporters wanted to play the tribal card, they were surprised to see the boys united and eventually they would love us seeing that we made them happy on the field.
“We were at home at Highlanders as we also had people like the Chulus who were not Ndebeles playing for the club.
“Unity is what soccer is about. It brings nations together and it should stay like that,” said Chabata.
He said long back clubs did not practise, they met before a match and a collective decision was arrived at when giving people positions to play.
Once in a while boys would play during the week with one section of the suburb playing the other. Such information would leak to the rest of the group that so and so was good enough and when the meetings were held to choose the team, it would be by consensus.
“We did not have coaches, there would be one man who was called a manager who would be in charge of the team chosen by the group,” said Whitehorse.
He recalls the golden of amateur football where the late John Kimber Chipukula, Jestyo Rice, Ndege and Jacko Phiri were among the stars of the era.
“They played with so much passion that they made football very exciting,” said Chabata.
He remembers winning the Osborne Trophy and Townshend and Butcher Tournament.
His biggest regret was being left out of the Select team that toured South Africa in 1962. His employer then, refused to have him play in the tour something that nearly made Chabata quit his job. He said football had always soothed his heart but that day he decided not to sacrifice his livelihood although he loved the game so much.
He described Bhejane Dube, Chulu, Kimba, ABC Rusike and Canaan Mudenga as having been some of the best players of his generation.
The formation of organised national football in 1962 saw him cut his career short. The Big Three in Bafa, Northern Rhodesia, United Africa and Matabeleland Highlanders combined forces to form Bulawayo Cobras. Later some of the players were to desert Cobras and return to former teams but Chabata was to move some years later to City Pirates for whom John Walker was outstanding for years in between the goalposts.
“I became an official at Cobras but later moved to City Pirates when John Walker and some players formed it.
“I stayed there until we were banished after falling foul of the football administration in the 1970s following an abandoned match,” he said.
Chabata praised politicians like the late Vice Presidents of Zimbabwe Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo and Joseph Msika for preaching the gospel of unity to Zimbabweans in the 1960s and 1970s.
“Tribal hatred existed in football and tensions were reduced when Nkomo and the likes of Msika suggested that names that promoted tribalism like Mashonaland United and Matabeleland Highlanders be abolished in the mid 1970s.
“I urge every individual in the game of football to embrace unity as sport is all about love and peace,” said Chabata.
He derided those that seek cheap mileage by promoting tribalism in the beautiful game of football.
Chabata stays with his family in Luveve.
Online Reporter
derick.khumalo