dyton mupawaenda
Sharuko on Saturday
ONE of the things I have always told myself is that I am not perfect and, just like all human beings in this world, I am bound to make mistakes – some big and others small.
I have always reminded myself that I am still that guy from Chakari, even though I have lived and worked in the big city more years than I spent at home, and I am not any different from all the Chakariboys out there.
We will always remain the boys from the mining compounds, kumakomboni as we used to call it, where we used to share public bathrooms and toilets with our fathers.
A place where a mango thief could somehow be trapped in a tree, thanks to the magical powers of the owner of the house where the tree was located.
A place where a man called Kavarura, who could barely walk because of old age, somehow kept being passed to be fit for work by doctors because, we were told, of his magical powers.
He was our neighbour, in the M4 section of the compounds.
And, we knew he was not going to work because we used to see him tending to his garden, in the company of his beloved grandson Manhuta, all the time.
But, all this time, his shift bosses would mark him to have been present in that eight-hour underground shift, even though he never set his foot at the mine for work.
Our mother used to tell us that his magical powers would confuse his shift bosses, the way it was blinding the doctors to his clear frailty and old age.
And, in their minds good old Kavarura was religiously reporting for work every day even though the reality was that he had long retired and all he was doing was drinking his masese and tending his garden.
When the end finally came for Kavarura, it was as mysterious as it was heart-breaking, probably keeping in line with the way he had lived his life.
One day, his lifeless body was found floating in one of the giant sewage pools on the outskirts of our little town, in the final chapter of a life like no other I have seen before or I will probably see again.
Decades after his death, it’s still a mystery as to what happened to him, and no one knows whether he was murdered or his powerful magic backfired and dragged him to his gory death.
My childhood might have been lived in such a crazy environment, but it doesn’t make me, and all the guys who grew up in that environment, any special and we are just as ordinary as the guys who grew elsewhere.
The job I chose might have transformed me into someone who is known around the country, and other parts of the world.
But, that doesn’t make me more special than my childhood friends Solomon Banda, Samuel Mwale, Alec Chirwa and Gift Mbaura Dani.
These guys don’t have the same public profile that I have, but that doesn’t make me more special than them and, just like all of them, I make mistakes now and again.
I SAID SORRY TO LLOYD HOVE
What is important is that when I make a mistake, I should be in a position to acknowledge that and apologise.
Those who are regular readers of this column will remember when I acknowledged that it was a mistake on my part not to understand and, more importantly appreciate, the grand vision that Lloyd Hove had for Dynamos towards the end of the ‘90s.
The businessman came from a Dynamos family.
That was a different and true DeMbare.
Long before Bernard Marriot came along and personalised the people’s team into a family project that has reduced the Glamour Boys into a new millennium version of Rufaro Rovers.
Lloyd’s father was so obsessed with DeMbare, in general, and Moses Chunga, in particular, and it was natural that his son would follow that romantic family line.
Lloyd was, and probably still is, a member of Real Madrid and in the ‘90s he used to frequent the Bernabeu for a VIP experience to watch his favourite football club.
That’s where he picked lessons of how such a giant club should be run, the virtues of professionalism, investment into quality players, the introduction of a structure which separated and paid players according to their value.
When he tried to introduce it at Dynamos, it was met with fierce resistance from the players and I acknowledged it was a mistake for me to give a platform for those rebellious players to fight their boardroom battle against Lloyd.
It was a time when the DeMbare players were quite powerful, something which they had earned thanks to their success in the CAF Champions League in ’98, and their voices were also powerful.
But, on reflection, their fight was built on selfishness at the expense of the long-term interests of the club and while a reporter should cover both sides of the story, I should also have been conscious to know the side which represented the light and the one which represented darkness.
Lloyd eventually left, but amid the mayhem which followed, as different warlords fought to control the club, it became clear that the club had lost a good leader who would have changed it in a very significant way.
DeMbare did not win the league championship for seven years after Lloyd left.
And, by the time they won the title again in 2007, it meant that a full decade had passed between the year they last won the championship and when they finally won it.
Now, by the time they start the new season, DeMbare would have gone 11 years without winning the title, and there is silence despite the clear signs that this is not right.
It’s probably an indication that either people have given up on Dynamos or are just waiting for the day when they reclaim their club from the Marriot family and stabilise it again.
LINCOLN REINVENTS HIMSELF
Another Dynamos son, Lincoln Mutasa, also came under heavy fire from criticism I used to dish out on him, especially in the first year as caretaker leader of ZIFA.
In all honesty, I still feel that Lincoln was not only horrible, but clearly clueless in his first year in charge of the association.
In more ways than one, he appeared like a dinosaur, plucked from the Stone Age who was expected to address challenges faced in the New Millennium where we now have Artificial Intelligence and related stuff.
I stand by my views that if Lincoln had been pushed out by FIFA, at the end of his first year as ZIFA caretaker leader, he would have gone down as a failed leader.
But, since being given a new lease of life, when his term was extended by another six months, Lincoln has been an absolute success story and that should also be acknowledged by some of his biggest critics like myself.
He has reinvented himself into becoming a very good leader of our game.
I even get the sense that he had probably been captured by those in the ZIFA leadership who were removed from the committee by FIFA at the end of their first year in office.
Without them in the picture, Lincoln has flourished as a leader, ticked all the boxes and made all the right calls, including choosing a man who appears to be the right coach for the Warriors.
I will not list qualification for a 24-team AFCON finals as a success because we are going there for the fourth time, in the last four editions in which we have been part of the qualifiers.
We are going there for the SIXTH time in our history and, in the past seven years, qualifying for the AFCON finals has become something we do regularly.
But, it is also important to consider that this was a complicated campaign because we were not playing at home and you have to bring in all the complexities that come with playing away from home.
For me, what was impressive was that he learnt from the chaos in Rwanda when the boys boycotted training over unpaid dues and, from there, everything sailed smoothly.
That is true leadership, the ability for one to learn from his or her mistakes, and to bring in measures to ensure that the mistakes will not happen again.
More importantly for me, Lincoln chose not to be the face of the Warriors campaign but, like every good leader, let his work do the talking while keeping himself in the shadows.
In the last five months, since FIFA extended his term, Lincoln has been outstanding as ZIFA boss and it’s important that I highlight his success story just like the way I used to highlight his failures.
He has given us a proper model of what a good ZIFA boss should be like – cool, calm and collected, one who doesn’t dominate the headlines but one who ensures that his work, in the background, provides the headlines.
The Key Performance Indicators are there for all of us to see and ZIFA, in the last five months, has been an oasis of tranquillity, a bastion of professionalism and an island of hope.
Most of the credit should be given to Lincoln Mutasa, the man who found a way to reinvent himself and, in the process, turn himself into the ZIFA leader we have been crying out for.
It’s a pity he isn’t allowed to contest for the ZIFA presidency next month because he would have been a very good contender for that post – thanks to the work he has done in the past five months.
He has provided a perfect template to the man or woman who will come in next month with the mandate to be the substantive leader of ZIFA.
If my fierce criticism of Lincoln, in his first year in charge, was a mistake, then I apologise to him.
It’s something I showed in Lloyd Hove’s case that I don’t see myself as Mr Know-It-All who doesn’t make mistakes.
I’m just an ordinary guy from Chakari.
And, I can also argue that maybe the fierce criticism that I dished out on him helped him realise his mistakes and turn himself into this good ZIFA leader that he has become in the past five months.
But, whatever the case, I think it is proper to just tell him that he has bounced back in spectacular fashion and he deserves to be praised for that.
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Khamaldhinoooooooooooooooooo!
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