Online Reporter
Lovemore Dube, Zimpapers Sports Hub
CHARLES Ndebele, the founding goalkeeper of Black Rhinos Football Club who was later replaced by the legendary Japhet “Short Cat” Mparutsa, says he played wartime football under a canopy of trees, on cleared ground deep in the Zambian bush.
“We were forced just to clear spaces to allow us to play carpet football,” he recalled.
“We played under tree cover and in between tree trunks. We played carpet soccer at Foxhole Camp in Zambia.
“Ndebele was stationed at the ZPRA’s Foxhole Camp during the liberation struggle and says recreational football became a mental escape for many of the young fighters. But it wasn’t anything close to the beautiful game they knew back home.
“There were so many obstacles to conventional football. The forests were dense. But the idea was to have the ball not sell us out. So high balls were strictly prohibited,” he explained.
Spotter planes regularly scouted for guerrilla positions ahead of bombing raids. Keeping a low profile wasn’t optional. By 1977, after several ZPRA camps in Zambia were bombed, the kick rounds came to an end.
Still, the memory of those makeshift games lingered.
“Football was for recreation. We were young men who had played the sport before we joined the armed struggle. There was not much to do apart from training and military drills,” said Ndebele.
“So once we had spare time, we’d do a kick around, always aware of the looming danger. That’s why we never cleared the bush, just enough space for our camping and training needs as guerillas.”
After the war, football played a key role in helping former fighters reconnect with society. For Ndebele, the spark reignited at Gwayi River Mine Assembly Point, where football quickly became part of daily life again.
His journey into organised football resumed briefly with a team that later played in the Matabeleland North lower divisions under the name Dynamo Kiev. The team was made up of former freedom fighters.
But before he could settle, he was transferred to Mudzi Barracks in Murewa in August 1980, after being absorbed into the newly formed Zimbabwe National Army.
At Mudzi, an opportunity arose when the then Army Commander, Solomon Mujuru, called for army players to attend trials. Ndebele made the cut, joining over 40 players selected for the squad that went on to win the 1983 Northern Region Division One title.
Initially scouted as a winger, it was veteran coach Shepherd Murape who saw something different in him.
“He turned me into a goalkeeper after watching what I could do before training started. He was impressed,” said Ndebele.
Murape is a former Dynamos player and coach who assembled the brilliant Black Rhinos of the 1980s.
Speaking to Zimpapers Sports Hub on Thursday, Ndebele emphasised how football helped ex-combatants re-enter civilian life.
“Naturally, communities feared ex-combatants. Football helped us reintegrate into society. People got to appreciate that we were humans too, not the propaganda they had been fed on,” he said.
Games between teams from various Assembly Points were often charged with emotion. Some fighters were stunned to discover long-lost relatives and friends among spectators or opposing teams.
“There was always an element of surprise, people meeting after a long time, sometimes in towns new to both,” said Ndebele.
“Imagine someone you last saw in Bulawayo, now working in Hwange, and least expecting to see you there as a ZPRA combatant.
Some believed their brother or cousin hadn’t survived the war, only to meet during a football match.”
The Gwayi River Mine Assembly Point team played in towns like Dete, Hwange, Kamativi, Lupane, and Bulawayo, leaving behind a trail of unforgettable football and emotional reunions.
Among their ranks was George Moyo, once Highlanders’ goalkeeper alongside Ananias Dube in 1976 after Bruce Grobbelaar had left the club to be conscripted in the Rhodesian Army.
Before the war, Ndebele had played lower division football.
Now retired from the army, he lives a quieter life as a farmer at Heany Junction, just outside Bulawayo.
