Dynamos have always been a club built on a foundation of superstition and a female physiotherapist Abigail Munikwa was fired, following a poor run in October 2009. A clique of the DeMbare executive felt that the presence on the bench of the 32-year old woman was affecting the club’s magical powers because such powers do not work if a woman was involved.
Chiweshe told Standardsport that the club consulted a Harare-based n’anga for the better part of the season and only dumped him in September after the African Champions League as Chiweshe was against it.
The incensed “Mr Bones” threatened DeMbare that they were not going to win any league title or cup match after he was dumped. DeMbare lost the league title to Motor Action.
Chiweshe said the Glamour Boys were forking out US$700 per match for the witchdoctor’s services. He said DeMbare bouncers carried out the rituals on the pitch particularly at home ground Rufaro on the eve of each match and slept at the match venue before any match.
He said when the n’anga was consulted DeMbare would win by slim 1-0 margins. Incredibly, DeMbare won 10 of their 30 matches on 1-0 score lines.
The Glamour Boys managed to beat Black Mambas, Kiglon, Monomotapa, Lengthens (twice), FC Victoria, Bantu Rovers, Shooting Stars and Highlanders by the same margin. However this might have cost DeMbare the league title as they lost the league title by a inferior goal difference. Bulls and DeMbare ended the season tied on 66 points but the Mighty Bulls had 52 goals for against DeMbare’s 43 goals.
Following his shock resignation Chiweshe met the executive on Tuesday night for a crisis meeting but stuck to his guns.
He said he had run out of patience as the club forced him to compromise his Christian beliefs by using juju in all the team’s matches.
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Chiweshe narrated to Standardsport the harrowing ordeal at the hands of some superstitious board members.
“I have no problem with the executive at all as they understood me as from the first day that I took over. Actually they are the people who have been behind my success for the two seasons that I have been at DeMbare.
“When I took over, I told the executive that they should stop all the bouncers that used to sleep at match venues before any match. Before I came in, bouncers were deployed at the match venue to sleep over guarding the place and doing all other rituals, but I managed to convince the executive to stop that.
“The second thing that I did was to stop the use of juju in all our league matches. At first they did not understand what I meant. They decided to go behind my back and they started dealing with my subordinates Tichaona Diya (assistant coach) and Nyika Chifamba (team manager), but as the season progressed, I managed to stop that too.
“The only problem I had was in the Champions League. I failed to convince the board members not to use juju in our matches. I managed to convince the executive led by Farai Munetsi and board member chairman Richard Chiminya. There are two board members that I could not convince (names supplied). These are the people who gave me sleepless nights in my football career as a coach.
“I had to give them the green light to use their juju after my pastor had told me to let them do it as long as I was not part of it. If the sangoma could work, why did we not lift the trophy then?” Chuchu said.
Chiweshe said the guillotine was always looming over his head as the DeMbare executive secretly held interviews for the new coach before his resignation. The coaches interviewed were Moses Chunga, Lloyd Mutasa and Norman Mapeza, with Mutasa landing the DeMbare job on Wednesday.
“I wonder how they are going to work with Mutasa because he is a member of the vapostori sect so we have to wait and see if he is going to accept the use of juju in his team” Chiweshe said.
“I just wanted to let people know that whatever we do here are earthly things, they will not take us to heaven. I would rather lose my job than to compromise my Christianity. I wanted people to appreciate the Lord himself that he can do wonders in our lives,” Chuchu said.
This is not the first time that players and coaches have left Dynamos due to forced use of juju.
In 2006, Tafadzwa Dube left Dynamos claiming that he was being forced to wear a kit that would have spent the whole night at a sangoma’s house and also to put some juju in his stockings during matches.
