NINETEEN local league championship medals, a Confederation of African Football (CAF) Champions League silver medal and numerous domestic triumphs in knock out tournaments describe the hallmark of Dynamos FC.
Report by Albert Marufu
As the country’s most successful team head into their Golden Jubilee celebrations this year, they have no investments to show for all the successes, compared to smaller and younger clubs like Motor Action, which has its own club house.
Even their erstwhile enemies Highlanders, who at 87 are the country’s oldest club, have their own club house.
To former Dynamos chairman, Simon Makaza, the situation could had been different had it not been for the club’s indoctrinated policy of hiring and firing executives at will without proper hand over, take over procedures.
“Dynamos should have been among the top clubs in Africa, but the club is impatient with their executives. We should not look at our current situation where the club has nothing to show and despair. We have to unite and forge ahead as a family. The current executive has its own plans and they must be allowed to fulfill them,” said the 56-year-old administrator.
“They have done tremendously well and should be left to run the club. We should support them. We have drawn five games, but that is common in football.” Makaza said he was a victim of the lack of patience at Dynamos and the move paid dearly to his plans when his executive was fired in 2002, with only one game of the season left.
“I was vice-chairman to Rafiq Adam in 2002, when we were fired we had a lot of plans for the club. I remember taking the club to the first Vodacom Challenge in South Africa. The competition enabled me to foster a closer relationship with Chiefs owner Kaizer Motaung who linked us to kit sponsor Reebok.
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“Kaizer Chiefs’ contract with Reebok was coming to an end and they were not renewing it as they had secured a new deal with Nike. We were on the verge of clinching the sponsorship deal, but we were fired by then Zifa chairman Leo Mugabe and the board that came after us had other ideas. That meant the club always stayed on the same spot,” he said.
Makaza added that their executive had also negotiated with the City of Harare for the use of Glamis Stadium by the club and negotiations were at an advanced stage. “We had realised that the City of Harare was not getting much from the use of Glamis and we were in discussions so that we could take over the stadium. We had even proposed that the council can take over our land that was in Waterfalls before it was sold by the executive that came after us,” he said.
He said the current set up where the board chooses the executive is healthy unlike in the past where players and supporters voted for the executive they wanted. “In the past players and supporters used to choose the executive they wanted. In the end that created player power,” he said.
Makaza however, admitted that he was also a beneficiary of the player power at Dynamos when he was voted as vice-chairman in the short-lived Jokoniah Nhekairo led executive in 1991.
“I was very close to most of the team’s players and Angirayi Chapo nominated me for the position of vice-chairman and Stanley Chirambadare seconded the motion. I was voted into office,” said Makaza who also became Flame Lily vice-chairman in 2006.
“Unfortunately we did not stay long in office because of an unfortunate incident in 1992 when we were going to play in Sudan in a CAF competition. Zifa gave us a Head of Delegation whom we did not know and we told then Zifa chairman Nelson Chirwa about the issue.
“He told us to talk to Lazarus Mhurushomana who unfortunately pitched up at the airport on the departure day with the same guy and we refused to travel with him to Sudan. On our return, Zifa suspended us and Nhekairo did not side with us,” he said.
He added that Dynamos broke into two teams — Dynamos FC and Dynamos United — until the intervention of Canaan Banana that saw an election being held again. “We went for an election in which players and some supporters voted and Morrison Sifelani won and I was elected committee member,” he said.
Makaza, was the Under-20 team manager when the team won back to back Vodacom titles. However, he came face to face with the cruel nature of football in 2005 when he was fingered in a UK visa scam.
“The media got the whole context wrong and it was unfortunate that officials at Zifa could not explain the situation. Three businessman bought tickets for the Under-20 team when the team had been invited to Holland and we were supposed to help them process visas in return.
“This we communicated with Zifa, but when the story broke out, they pretended ignorance,” he said.
As a parting shot Makaza said, “Dynamos should revert to its junior policy. This idea of buying players is taking us nowhere at all as new plyers do not know the culture of the club. They are using the club as a stepping stone.”