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Lovemore Dube
ZIMBABWE footballing legend Rahman is probably the most famous of the footballing Gumbo family from Njube.
His two younger brothers, Nkosana who turned out for Zimbabwe Saints in the 1990s and AmaZulu in their championship chase in the early 2000s up to the conquest of 2003 and former Chikwata midfielder, Norman are known to a lesser extent.
Football appears to be running in the veins of this family with almost seven traceable decades of involvement in the game beginning with their father and two elder brothers, Jimmy and Charles.
Sunday News Leisure on Friday morning caught up with Jimmy the eldest of the five brothers at their North End family home.
He played for Bulawayo Wanderers, Highlanders, Njube United coincidentally founded by their father Peter Gumbo and later Kambasha Brothers.
The lure of gold and an injury brought his career to an abrupt end in 1976 when he joined thousands of fellow countrymen to work in the mines under Wenela.
Jimmy was born in Bulawayo on 29 April 1943 to a family of five boys and as many girls.
It is by no chance that all five boys played football at a high level. Their father captained Civil Service in the 1940s and 50s. He is the one who planted the football seed in the gems that footballing loving Bulawayans have watched at stadia in and around the country to beyond the borders of Zimbabwe and Africa.
“It was only natural that we took after our father. He loved the game so much and coached us at home as little boys to stars that we got to be. He played for Civil Service and I saw him as a player and that motivated me in developing an interest in the game,” said Jimmy.
Initially the Gumbos lived at 05 Mzilikazi. However, Rahman was not yet born when the family moved to A Square in Njube.
Rahman would 30 years after his family left Mzilikazi fit in well at Bosso at a time when the club was more of a dominion of boys from Mzilikazi suburb.
Jimmy attended Insukamini Primary School where he recalls playing football with Solomon Masuku of Mtshede, Aaron Ncube who played for Bulawayo Wanderers.
“I started playing football in Mzilikazi as a little boy, playing at whatever patch we could fit in our football games. When I got to Njube where we settled in 1955 finding D Square already established, I continued with the sport to stay fit and occupied as there were fewer things to keep us busy,” said Jimmy.
Jimmy joined a Bulawayo Wanderers side that played Bulawayo African Football Association soccer in 1959. The club was based at Iminyela field near Iminyela Hall, a stone’s throw from the home of two other Bulawayo Wanderers stars Allan and Victor Moonsammy.
“The club played in the Bafa leagues with Mashonaland Home Defenders and Highlanders. Defenders and Highlanders were notable opposition and we played in a league and cup competitions which included the Castle Cup, Townshend and Butcher and the Osborne Trophy for those who were able to make it to Red Army, a select side made up of players from Bafa,” said Jimmy.
He said while football lagged behind in so many respects during that era, he said it had born its own stars with the big names John Walker Chipukula, Jambok, 303 Marume, Dusty King, Edward Dzowa, Scholar and Edward Magungubala Dlamini.
As the national league took off in 1963, Jimmy said that saw the emergence of brilliant footballers at national level of the magnitude of Simon Sachiti and Stephen “Faka Simbi” Chimedza.
“John Walker was an excellent goalkeeper but often a danger to the opposition, he would elbow strikers or seemingly use his knees to protect himself yet intention would be to hurt opposition strikers,” said Jimmy.
His most memorable game was a game lost 1-0 to Highlanders in a Castle Cup game at Queens Ground in the 1960s. He said the game was played in typical derby atmosphere with pace and crunching tackles.
“As Bulawayo Wanderers we gave the match our all and lost narrowly. I enjoyed the game playing alongside Dan Masuka facing the likes of Jambok a good dribbler. However, unfortunately on the day I clashed with Jambok and broke my leg,” he said as he pulled his pair of trousers to show this writer scars on his left leg.
Chamberlain coached Bulawayo Wanderers while Canaan Nxumalo was in charge of Highlanders back then, according to Jimmy.
Jimmy played as a defensive linkman in the old 4-2-4 formation of two midfielders where the Number Six mainly defended and the Number Eight attacked.
He had a stint with Highlanders in the 1960s teaming up with the likes of Jambok, a Bosso and Red Army hero of that era.
He was to join Njube United, a club founded in 1971 by his father, a Moyo who owned a barbershop in Njube and a Madoda who worked at Rhodesia Railways.
“Madoda was not his real name. He was given by players and fans as he liked to say to the boys, ‘let’s play harder Madoda’ while pushing us to do better on the field,” said Gumbo.
From playing for Njube in Bafa, Jimmy found himself off to Kambasha Brothers (KB) Rockets in Kwekwe where he played up to 1976.
A recurring injury on his left shin forced him to retire early and join hordes of players lost to Wenela in South Africa.
He worked there up to 1983 when he returned under a new black government headed by Robert Mugabe after Labour Minister Kumbirai Kangai had made a call for those conscripted to work in the mines in South Africa to return.
Of his other brother not known by many in the football circles Charles, he had this to say “He is probably the most talented of all of us. He was far much better than Rahman and they played together at Njube United. Sadly a problem with his eyesight forced him out of the game early.”
Jimmy said Gibson Homela, William Sibanda, Dusty King, a winger and master dribbler with one hand were among the best footballers he saw in this country.
While in South Africa where he worked at St Helena Mine he played casual football with fellow Zimbabweans, some of whom showed a lot of talent but could not take to a more competitive level.
The Gumbos will remain among Bulawayo and Zimbabwe’s most treasured footballing families with their name engraved in football’s historians’ laptops.
There have been other great families that have seen siblings entertain thousands over the years with the Ndlovu brothers Marko, Adam, Peter and late Adam, Max Tshuma and Michael, Francis and Tito Paketh, Allan and Richard Boonzaier, the Moonsammys, Richard Choruma and Dumisani Dube, Henry and Pernell Mckop, Lawrence and Kingston Phiri, Jeffrey and Mike Mpofu to mention but a few.
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter