The Sunday Mail
Langton Nyakwenda recently in ZVISHAVANE
IT’S a town that gave the nation Elliot Mujaji, Zimbabwe’s first ever Paralympic gold medallist who had switched over to the special sports after suffering severe burns in an electrical accident at work that left his right arm amputated.
Mujaji won two gold medals in the 100m sprints at both the 2000 and 2004 Paralympic medals and remains one of the high-profile sporting personalities to have come out of Zvishavane — a mining town with an estimated population of just over 50 000.
Exactly 15 years after Mujaji’s highly acclaimed exploits, a new sporting force has emerged from the mining town in the form of FC Platinum, the first top-flight football team from outside Harare and Bulawayo to win the championship three times in a row.
Pure Platinum Play completed a perfect hat-trick of Premiership titles when they stunned CAPS United 1-0 in their final match of the season atthe National Sports last weekend.
And Zvishavane is still vibrating, a week after the historic feat.Hailing from a small town in Zimbabwe’s Midlands region, FC Platinum can now rub shoulders with African football giants Al Ahly, who are based in Cairo, the biggest city in the Arab world, with a population of over 20 million people.
FC Platinum, who are in a tough Group B alongside Al Hilal, Etoile du Sahel and Al Ahly, are featuring in the CAF Champions League for the third time and for the second time they are playing in the mini league phase.
They face the biggest test of their Champions League pedigree when they date the competition’s most successful club Al Ahly in Cairo on December 28.
“There’s no time for Christmas, it’s work and more work,” FC Platinum captain Petros Mhari told The Sunday Mail after the team’s light training session at Mandava last Thursday.
“Champions League assignments do not come any bigger than a date with Al Ahly in Cairo, where the eight-time African kings have a real fortress. FC Platinum go to Cairo anchoring Group B with zero points after losing 1-2 to Al Hilal in Khartoum and 1-3 against Etoile at Barbourfields in their opening two fixtures.
“We are still learning the ropes so people should give us time to gain more experience at this level,” said Mhari.
Champions League
“If you look at our performances we are improving gradually, we are now playing the mini league, which is an achievement on its own.
“Every player dreams of playing in the Champions League final but this comes with years of learning the trick,” the goalkeeper said.
Champions League football aside, Zvishavane is reverberating.
FC Platinum are dominating most of the discussions amongst revellers in Makwasha and Mandava suburbs.
Replica jerseys are a major sight in most entertainment areas, business people say they are recording massive sales and it seems Zvishavane is happy because of FC Platinum.
Senzeni Muisa, a vendor at Mandava wholesale market was wearing an FC Platinum jersey when The Sunday Mail Sport caught up with her.
“FC Platinum is our team; we are proud of them and praying that they continue dominating. However, we hope that in future they will recruit more local players so that we get to see the real benefits,” she said.
FC Platinum, one of the most financially stable teams in the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League today, boast an array of star players drawn from Harare and Bulawayo.
Their stability has given them the clout to attract some of the finest players in the country.
Such is their player depth that they still managed to win the league title even after losing four key players — Farai Madhanaga, Ali Sadiki, the Moyo twins Kelvin and Elvis — plus coach Norman Mapeza midway through the season.
Chicken Inn lost top scorer Clive Augusto to ABSA Premiership side Maritzburg and they tumbled.
CAPS United lost Method Mwanjale to injury and became a sieve at the back.
“We are not yet there but we are growing bit by bit. Winning three titles in a row shows that we are doing something right,” said club chairman Evans Mtombeni.
“Our sponsors support us, it’s a system that has been developing for years since 2011 when we made our debut in the Premiership. We have depth both on the technical bench and on the playing field. That depth carried us through when Mapeza and assistant coach Daniel Veremu left. That depth helped us to fight on in both the domestic scene and the Champions League,” said Mtombeni.
With three league titles in nine seasons, FC Platinum are a fast-growing football giant whose profile excites football fans in Zvishavane.
Even supporters of rival club Shabanie Mine have been caught up in the web. Moses “Chunga” Sibanda, a 59-year-old Shabanie Mine supporter, who remains a big fan of former Bvaru Bvaru coach Moses Chunga, had this to say:
“To be honest, I was rallying behind CAPS United being a Shabanie Mine supporter but the truth is FC Platinum have, in a way, made the people of Zvishavane proud.
“They are our neighbours so at the end of the day we have to put the town’s interests first,” said Sibanda.
“Poor” Performances
A youthful Nelson Chakauya, who was wearing a white FC Platinum replica jersey when we caught up with him near Mandava Stadium is, however, worried about his team’s “poor” performances on the African safari.
“There is need for the team to up the game in the CAF Champions League, sometimes the performances are an embarrassment to us people of Zvishavane,” said the 26-year-old supporter.
FC Platinum finished bottom of Group B with two points in six matches during the 2019-2020 CAF Champions League campaign.
Mtombeni acknowledges his team’s weaknesses on the African continent.
“At times the bar can be raised when it comes to CAF assignments. We lost experienced players during the season, so ordinarily we have to address those numbers so that we can compete in Africa.
“We are in negotiations, some are progressing well, and once we are done we will use the right channels to announce the deals. We don’t want to talk about a player, if the deal collapses then we are left with egg on our faces.”
Although Mtombeni could not be drawn into revealing some names, the champions have reportedly pinned down Triangle star Ralph Kawondera to a two-year deal worth about US$7 000 per season.
FC Platinum are also believed to be chasing Highlanders striker Prince Dube, TelOne’s King Nadolo and former employee Ian Nekati, who could make a sensational return to Mandava.
However, Naison Kuvengwa, a 35-year-old tyre dealer, feels FC Platinum should be given a chance to gain the experience required to conquer Africa.
“People can say our team is not doing well in Africa but us as its supporters we are saying give us a chance to grow.
“We will gain more experience by playing regularly in CAF,” he said.
Tafara Phineas Chomugudhu, a fruit and vegetable vendor at Hamamaoko Market, was planning to throw a party this weekend when The Sunday Mail Sport visited his stall.
“People refer to us as rural people, we come from a small town that is looked down upon but that team from little Zvishavane is now bullying big teams from big cities.
Homegrown Talent
“We are bragging, we are even organising a party with my friends this weekend to celebrate.
“We are really confident that this team can dominate for the next 10 years, nothing can stop them. FC Platinum are the team to beat now, they are the real giant now.”
His son, Lenox Chomugudhu, is a 12-year-old winger who plays for FC Platinum’s junior team.
“Most of the kids love FC Platinum, we look up to the senior players.
“They are our role models, we are always saying one day we will be like Gift Bello, Kelvin Madzongwe or Never Tigere,” he says.
Even as her team is swimming in success, Esteri Tongoteya, a motor spares dealer who lives in Makwasha, has two wishes.
“I wish Shabanie Mine will one day return to the PSL so that the Zvishavane derby is revived. I would also want FC Platinum to recruit some local players because at the moment most of the players are from Bulawayo and Harare.”
Mtombeni agrees there is need for his team to tap into home-grown talent but argues that process will happen gradually.
“If you look at Manchester City, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Liverpool, those teams have vibrant junior teams, but if you look at their squads and how active they are on the market you would not think they had any junior development programmes
“From 2011 we have had junior development programmes at FC Platinum. We have an academy at Guinea Fowl. We have an Under-19 team that plays in the Central Region Division One League.
“We have also produced players that we have loaned out like Cleopas Kapupurika, who is at Highlanders, Nigel Makumbe (ZPC Kariba), Kelvin Bingala, who is at Herentals, and the duo of David Mangesi and Marvelous Chigumira, who turned out for TelOne last season,” said Mtombeni.
“Part of our aspirations, like everyone else, is to have homegrown talent but our town is small to produce.
“But we do have players with roots here. In the senior team we have a player like Simon Shoko, and some technical members who are locally based.
“In the outlook, we are seriously considering those things, even partnering local schools. In the near future we would want players in our team who trace their roots in Zvishavane. It is not a policy but an aspiration.”
