The Sunday Mail
AT the end of it all, the team in blue and white were in seventh heaven.
And the sight of Tonderai Ndiraya, Kelvin Bulaji, Walter Mukanga and Partson Jaure in their ranks would have tempted the uninitiated into assuming that this was Dynamos.
But alas this outfit in blue, with several characters who once claimed that their hearts were emblazoned with the DeMbare badge, were Ngezi Platinum Stars, the new Chibuku Super Cup champions.
A 3-1 demolition of defending champions FC Platinum at the Baobab earned the Premiership debutantes the right to lift that famous trophy as well as a ticket into next year’s Caf Confederations Cup.
However, in the morning after a memorable show that has everyone at Zimplats – Ngezi Platinum Stars’ sponsors – smiling ear to ear, its difficult not to think about DeMbare.
Not with so many of their former sons in that Ngezi dressing room!
Ndiraya, the man who has turned Ngezi Platinum Stars into a serious outfit, was their coach last season but they treated him like garbage at the start of this term.
As he was busy drafting a pre-season programme, Kenny Mubaiwa and his executive were drafting his dismissal letter and Paulo Jorge Silva’s appointment note.
The youthful gaffer was shattered but not anymore.
His reputation has been restored after leading Ngezi Platinum Stars to their first piece of top flight silverware.
Ndiraya is smart, he reads the line of questioning well and avoids speaking ill of Dynamos, not even in his moment of glory.
“That team made me, it taught me a lot. I am the man I am today because of DeMbare,” he says and stops there.
But the DeMbare fans know that the team’s decision to fire Ndiraya in favour of a Portuguese national who looked more like a comedian than a coach was a mistake, one of the several that their team made for the benefit of Ngezi this year.
“That decision is the howler of the season,” said Ngonidzashe Zuze who was also alive to the fact that DeMbare had the chance to sign Liberty Chakaroma – who played a blinder for Ngezi – at the start of the season.
“And how on earth did Dynamos not offer Chakoroma a contract? No disrespect to Alimenda, Chipunza, Mukandi and company, but Liberty will walk into the Dynamos midfield with eyes closed and offer much, much more,” he added.
In announcing his shock decision to dump DeMbare for the platinum miners, Chakaroma claimed that the Harare side had offered him an ex-japanese vehicle as his “sign on fees”, a development he viewed as an insult.
DeMbare denied that claim, they still do.
Mukanga and Bulaji were deemed excess baggage at Dynamos while Jaure, on his return from South Africa, chose the tranquility of Ngezi Platinum Stars ahead of the turbulence that has permanent residence status at the team that catapulted him to fame.
No one among that trio is regretting how things turned out.
They have Chibuku Super Cup winners’ medals in their possession while their Dynamos counterparts are set to end the season with nothing, not even their pride.
Speaking on the eve of yesterday’s final, Zimplats’ head of corporate affairs Busi Chindove said Ngezi Platinum Stars had, by a country mile, exceeded their expectations in their debut topflight league.
“We are just amazed by what this team has done already. Whatever the result in the final, this team are already champions in our eyes,” she said.
Well, Ngezi Platinum Stars are champions, not only in the eyes of their sponsor.
