Online Reporter
Sharuko on Saturday
TO say that I have been angry this week is an understatement — the fury triggered by the Wild West chaos which exploded at Chahwanda.
Somehow, the Satan of football chose our most beautiful arena for the merchants of mayhem to give us a full exhibition of how they passed their practical lessons in acquiring degrees in destruction.
They destroyed parts of the stadium — the biggest investment in sports infrastructure in the country since the National Sports Stadium was opened in 1987.
It’s also the biggest investment in sports infrastructure by an individual in this country — eclipsing what was poured into the construction of Gwanzura and the Heart Stadium.
Shepherd Chahwanda could have chosen to pour his money into a mansion, or many mansions, in Borrowdale Brooke.
He could have chosen to use his money to construct a mall, a solid real estate investment from where generations of his family would have extracted value and sustained their livelihoods.
He could have chosen to buy a fleet of buses, entering into a field where the likes of Tanda Tavaruva used to play as they ran their transport business and also explored their passion of running a football club.
Instead, the reclusive businessman, who avoids the spotlight and lets his work do the talking, chose to build a modern football stadium.
It’s such a beautiful sporting facility — just being there provides you with a sense of pride that a Zimbabwean managed to pursue his dreams and build such a theatre of dreams.
It represents everything modern the same way Rufaro represents everything from the past — a TikTok-era stadium where the grand old facility in Mbare remains a throwback to the era of dinosaurs.
A bygone era where goalkeepers were allowed to collect back passes, where only three substitutes could be used, where teammates were barred from touching the ball from a goal-kick until it left the penalty area.
A bygone era where the Silver and Golden Goals were allowed.
Chahwanda is the ultimate symbol of how our domestic game has been undergoing a transformation in the past Covid-era which has been characterised by significant investment from some of our richest businessmen.
It’s fair to say that our football has been a graveyard for the businessmen who have chosen to invest in the game over the years.
Its beauty lured them into its arms, its magic convinced them that it was worth the risk to spend their money in its fantasies and, like an addicted gambler, they kept pumping in the millions until their bank accounts ran dry.
Until their real estate portfolios were dry.
When it all ended, we had a group of broken men, their souls destroyed by the relentless pursuit of their dreams, their bank accounts a ghost of what they used to be, their families broken, their spirits crushed.
Some of them were tormented to their grave and, today, the game has moved on, forgotten about them, their families are harassed at the gates whenever they decide to go and watch a PSL game, their names are mocked in WhatsApp conversations.
DESTROYING THE JEWEL IN OUR CROWN
Incredibly, some of the players, and officials, whose families were fed by these gallant men who sacrificed everything for this game, are now at the forefront, in these WhatsApp conversations, of mocking these men.
Chahwanda knows about all this but he decided it would not distract him from pursuing his dreams.
Scott knows this, too, but he also decided it would not distract him from pursuing his dreams.
Like Chahwanda, he is also building his own stadium in Mabvuku and has just completed a sports village, complete with villas for his players and a training ground, which has a touch of the Kaizer Chiefs Village in Naturena.
Watching the destruction of parts of Chahwanda pained me a lot and made me quite angry.
I kept asking myself a question — what kind of people are we really?
A people without a CAF-certified stadium, somehow, desperately trying to destroy the one stadium which has been giving us hope that, sooner rather than later, we will be playing our national team home matches at our real home?
Then, I remembered that we destroyed all the public phones that used to be on our cities’ streets, we’ve stolen most of the solar panels which are supposed to light our city streets and we keep stealing oil from transformers meant to light up our homes.
That is why I agree with all sober-minded Zimbabweans who have been calling for those who were involved in this destruction to be punished in a way which will send the right signal for the would-be offenders.
There is a lot from the video footage from the madness at Chahwanda to help the authorities to identify those who were the angels of the disturbances and the agents of destruction and to nail them.
Chahwanda should be the moment everything changes.
THE MIRACLE AT CHAHWANDA
Amid all the nonsense, destruction and beatings, there was a Miracle at Chahwanda — no one died and, for that, we have to thank Lord the Almighty.
What I don’t agree with, though, is a deliberate attempt to try and give a one-sided version of what led to the chaos at Chahwanda.
Throughout the week, there has been a spirited attempt, from different angles, to lay all the blame on the Dynamos fans.
Yes, scores of DeMbare fans turned into hooligans on Sunday, led by that bare-shirted fellow who ended up showing his manhood, and they deserve to be punished heavily. But, before we blame the Dynamos fans who invaded the pitch and, in the process, helped trigger the chaos that led to the abandonment of the match, we need to ask ourselves why they fled onto the pitch in the first place?
What was happening in the stands, which led to that section of DeMbare fans to rush onto the pitch?
We can’t try to pretend that nothing was happening in the stands when missiles were flying in all directions.
It should be a key part of the analysis because if they really wanted to invade the pitch, and cause the abandonment of the match, why is it that they didn’t do it the moment the penalty was awarded?
Let’s say they gambled that it could be missed, and it wasn’t missed, why then didn’t they invade the pitch the moment the ball from the spot went into the net?
Was a draw at Chahwanda a bad result for Dynamos and were those fans ignorant of the fact that an invasion of the pitch, and the abandonment of the match, could mean that their team would also lose the one point they were holding on to at that stage of the match?
I’m so sure a good number of those fans were at Rufaro for the Harare Derby just a few weeks ago.
CAPS United, who are HUNDRED times a bigger rival to Dynamos than Hardrock, were awarded a penalty in time added on with the score at 1-1.
That’s a bigger and more painful blow to the DeMbare fans than Hardrock getting a penalty in the 80th minute in their own stadium at Chahwanda.
But, we didn’t see the Dynamos fans invade the pitch at Rufaro and force the abandonment of the Derby and CAPS converted their spot-kick and won a game they deserved to win.
Yes, we have hooligans at DeMbare, the same way we have hooligans at Highlanders, hooligans at CAPS United and, as we also saw on Sunday, hooligans at Hardrock.
The reaction of those Hardrock hooligans, including a CEO who pinned a supporter to the ground with his Size 14 boot and opened the way for others to pound him from all angles, including dangerous kicks to the head, somehow, isn’t being analysed and condemned among those laying all the blame on the DeMbare fans.
The fact that he has a bigger moral responsibility than supposters is also being ignored.
The fact that there was an inadequate number of police officers, FORTY instead of EIGHTY, is something they are trying to either ignore or suppress in the conversation because it defeats their narrative.
Even PSL CEO Roddie Thebe is now under fire for just saying that the league and the hosts agreed to have EIGHTY police officers.
It’s something which the police spokesman has confirmed.
Roddie’s true statement, unfortunately, defeats the picture they want to paint.
We expect Roddie to tell us that 10 000 people paid to watch a match but we have issues with him when he tells us that they agreed that EIGHTY police officers would be at the big match.
He never said there were less than EIGHTY police officers, he just told us about the number of officers they agreed would be at the stadium.
It’s the police spokesman who said there were FORTY police officers and we should question why that was the case and the role this played in failing to contain the mayhem.
To God Be The Glory
Peace to the GEPA Chief, the Big Fish, George Norton, Daily Service, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and all the Chakariboys still in the struggle.
Come on Warriors!!!!!!!!!!!!
Antoniooooooooooooo!
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