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Tadious Manyepo Sports Reporter
THE Warriors have commenced camp in South Africa ahead of their double-header 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Lesotho and South Africa.
They play Lesotho at Orlando Stadium in Johannesburg in a match they will be the home team on Friday, before they face off against South Africa at Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein on Tuesday next week.
And ZIFA decided they set base across the Limpopo in the build-up to their home-away-from-home game against Lesotho on Friday.
Most of the players in the squad had by late yesterday afternoon arrived in South Africa for the assignments.
The team is camped in Sandton and will train at the High-Performance Centre in Johannesburg.
Team manager Simba Gochera told Zimpapers Sports that most of the players in the squad, including all those called from Europe, are already in camp.
“The Warriors are indeed in camp in Johannesburg. We will be training at a local High-Performance Centre in Johannesburg to scientifically prepare the team ahead of the match against Lesotho on Friday,” said Gochera.
“All the foreign-based players called into the squad are safely here. Those travelling from Harare (Geofrey Chitsumba, Godknows Murwira, Walter Musona, Tymon Machope, and Martin Mapisa) are expected late on (late yesterday).
“Those travelling from Bulawayo (Donovan Bernard and Andrew Mbeba) will also arrive at the same time as their Harare counterparts.
“I can say that morale is very high and all the players are displaying some positive attitude and this is a very good sign. They are in very high spirits and hoping to see a good week of preparation leading up to our match against Lesotho.”
Gochera said Italy-based utility player Jordan Zemura will arrive in South Africa this morning. He was supposed to travel yesterday but after launching his Jordan Zemura Foundation through an Under-12 tournament in Harare on Saturday, Zemura’s journey was rescheduled to today.
“Everyone else is here and by late today (yesterday), we are expecting a full complement of the team, save for Jordan (Zemura) who will be arriving early tomorrow (today).
“It’s all looking sharp and we are optimistic that all will go according to plan as we have secured the training venue and everything else. We are thankful to South Africa-based Zimbabwe Footballers Association for working hand in glove with the embassy and other Zimbabwe-owned South Africa-based companies like Zororo-Phumulani (who dressed fans that welcomed the players at OR Tambo International Airport) to see to it that we got an ideal welcome here,” he said.
“We are very grateful and this is a good sign, which we also hope to see during our stay in South Africa.”
Gochera, a former Sports and Recreation Commission employee, replaced Chicken Inn administrator Clement Matawu in the Warriors manager’s post last week.
The move was heavily criticised by several stakeholders, but ZIFA yesterday defended their position.
“Gochera is the ZIFA member in charge of competitions and his role is intertwined with that of the Warriors manager. When we appointed Matawu (Clement) on a part-time basis last year, we didn’t have a competition manager in place.
“The roles are basically the same, but with budgetary constraints, we just decided that Gochera takes up the post without stretching the budget,” said a member of the ZIFA Normalisation Committee.
“That is basically about it. Gochera has vast experience in sport, having been the deputy chef de mission for Team Zimbabwe in the 2022 African Union Sports Council Region 5 Games in Malawi.
“We don’t doubt his capacity, which is why we took him in the first place. We are happy with the development.”
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