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Lovemore Dube
YESTERDAY a football hero of the yesteryear era was laid to rest in the City of Kings.
Like most of his generation Golliath Masuku had disappeared from the football radar. Only his family, friends, the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa (London Missionary Society) and the Bulawayo Wanderers community knew of his whereabouts.
Not even “villagised or townshipnised” Hall of Fame concepts have taken off the ground in football.
Such is the life of Zimbabwean sports personalities once their playing days are over. They do not become a part of history or legacy, they are completely forgotten and hence Sunday News’ deliberate effort to unearth most of the living so that we are not part of the false party eulogising over a forgotten hero.
A week after interviewing a Bulawayo Wanderers goalkeeping hero, and meeting legend Rahman Gumbo, Yours Truly has been running around trying to get pictures of one of the City’s most exciting football projects.
Yes, exciting. It would not be fair to the game to speak about Bulawayo Wanderers with the same breath like Highlanders, Bulawayo Rovers or Zimbabwe Saints all of whom were national champions.
There were other Bulawayo football projects like City Pirates, Cobras, Eastlands, Rangers, BSAP, Olympics, Railstars, Olympics and AmaZulu.
Wanderers for all they were, playing second fiddle to Bosso and Chikwata for a certain generation of fans remain entrenched in the annals of history for their flamboyance on the pitch.
AmaZulu were flamboyant off it and went all the way to win the 2003 league championship but Wanderers will be remembered for the talent that came from the townships.
It was more of a boys’ club headed by a strong-willed man with less resources but the sheer love of the game.
To many Wanderers’ peer would be Phinda Mzala, a project founded by shrewd tactician Charles Mhlauri in the mid 1990s.
Like Wanderers, Phinda Mzala did not play commercial football.
They did not play to grind a result but did so to express their artistry on the field. The fans had to be entertained and that is what both excelled in.
Richard Choruma, Lindani Kurairwa and Mike “Para” Zivira are among a list of talented footballers to have donned the Phinda Mzala jerseys.
Lindani or Limpa as fans affectionately called him was probably as exciting as the late Tutani Moyo was.
For what Bulawayo Wanderers got to be it was the sacrifices of founding players like Masuku that the sleek passing game was passed on to the great sides of the 1970s and 1980s.
The Bulawayo Wanderers’ home ground was White City Stadium having started off at Njube Ground. Most of the players were drawn from the old suburbs of Njube, Mabutweni, Iminyela, Mpopoma and Old Magwegwe.
Boy Ndlovu, Rahman Gumbo, Stanford Ntini, Simon Ncube, Asani Karigeni, Charles Wadawu, dribbling wizards Francis Paketh, Tanny Banda, Joseph Ndlovu, John Ncube, Elvis Chiweshe, Eddie Zimunya whose 135 goals in the Zifa Southern Region in the early 1980s could still be a record, are some of the better known players to have donned the gold and black colours of Mazhiya.
They played for the love of the game. They were unlike neighbours Bosso and Chikwata whose stars were guaranteed rich pickings from some of the matches.
Sight of some of the players eating bread and drinking Fanta at a bus stop shed an hour before kick-off were common. You would think the boys were not part of the team, even clubbing until wee hours on the eve of the game was part of the culture.
Wanderers could not afford camping. So the boys turned to God-given talent to spur them on in matches and embarrass the big guns of Zimbabwe football. They played with relative ease but with devastating calamity and sheer brilliance on the ball so much that decades later, people still talk of how Boy Ndlovu turned Sunday Chidzambwa inside out, how he could fool Douglas Mloyi into conceding a penalty. For them it appeared all fun.
On Monday, God recalled one of his sons Golliath Masuku, a devout United Congregational Church of Southern Africa member who had sought treatment for pancreas cancer in Johannesburg, South Africa.
“It was just in under two months that he succumbed while seeking treatment in South Africa. He was a role model to me as years after he retired when he was Bulawayo Wanderers chairman I joined the club’s juniors.
“Those were the good days of Bulawayo junior football with Bulawayo City Council at the heart of it through its club network.
He had laid a firm foundation for the club by then in the mid 1970s,” said Abraham Nyoni, a former Wanderers player and a nephew to the former club star.
Nyoni said Masuku had left a deep void in the family.
Masuku’s football journey began at birth in 1947. As a youngster he attended primary school at Mahleka Compound (West Gate), Iminyela Primary School and later Standard Three to Six.
He later went to Mpopoma High School.
His friend and former chairman at Bulawayo Wanderers Jerow Havane said Masuku was one of the early club legends.
“The club was founded in the 1960s with the help of Chamberlain, a Bulawayo City official. He was among the first players and was active up to 1973 before he became club secretary. When Majuta Mpofu moved to Highlanders I was chairman and he was secretary.
“As a player he was a good Number 6, he was an enterprising player who had commitment to the game and team,” said Havane.
Havane said it was Masuku’s generation which had laid a foundation for stars like Gumbo, Boy, Elvis and Chiweshe. Their flawless displays had won them admirers in most towns where the club played.
“Wanderers later called Eagles were popular in most towns because of the good football we played. The boys had talent and were artists who were able to brand the club and added a different dimension to local football with a touch of Brazilian football,” said Masuku.
The earlier generation of players Masuku teamed up with includes Mapleni Nyathi, the late Ronny Maseko, Melusi Doctor Sibanda, Reeder Nyoni and Ben Baron Ngwenya. Former Wanderers coach Trevor Carelse-Juul is on record as keen to revive the Iminyela and club legacy.
derick.khumalo