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Denver Mukamba

Petros Kausiyo Deputy Sports Editor
HARARE giants Dynamos have pardoned bad boy Denver Mukamba with the former Zimbabwe international being given a final warning to improve his behaviour and commitment to the club or be sacked. Mukamba and defender Lincoln Zvasiya appeared before the Dynamos executive committee yesterday facing disciplinary charges related to their poor conduct and alleged bad influence on the rest of the team.

The duo had over the last few weeks been barred from attending training by coach Lloyd Mutasa. Dynamos are involved in a four-horse race for the championship with Ngezi Platinum, FC Platinum and Chicken Inn. But two of the most experienced players in their squad, Mukamba and Zvasiya, have been a huge disappointment, hogging the limelight for the wrong reasons, and irking the Dynamos fans.

Zvasiya, whose contract with Dynamos expires at the end of next month, was not so lucky with the club’s chief asking him to start looking for a new side to join as they have no plans for him. The Dynamos executive, led by club president Kenny Mubaiwa, said they had also considered that Mukamba still had two more years at the club and felt he could be helped to redeem himself.

Dynamos secretary-general Webster Marechera emerged from their meeting with the players to reveal they had given Mukamba a new lease of life. A talented midfielder who has terribly lost his way since returning home from an unsuccessful stint with South African Premiership outfit Bidvest Wits, Mukamba is also understood to have apologised profusely to the executive and the DeMbare family for his wayward behaviour.

Marechera, however, insisted that Dynamos would not hesitate to cancel the contract they have with him and expel the midfielder should Mukamba again be found on the wrong side of the lines that defines discipline at the club.

“We met with Mukamba and Zvasiya and we looked at their cases after we received a report from the head coach and his technical team. As an executive we resolved that we would give Denver a final warning over his conduct which is certainly not acceptable at all at Dynamos. We were very frank with them and told them that this was the first time we were meeting with them as an executive over this matter after we also realised that they had continued to give problems at the team. We also took into account the contracts that we have with us and we felt that since Denver still has a contract that runs up to July 2019 we could give him another chance to improve on his conduct and possibly become a better player and in return he also apologised and vowed that he would now do things differently.

“As for Zvasiya we have just over a month before his contract with the club expires and we resolved that the best decision is to ask him to look for a new club to join for next year,’’ Marechera said. Marechera said Mutasa had also played a big part in the outcome of yesterday’s deliberations between the management and the players.

“The decisions that we took were done in consultation with the head coach and in any case he was the one who had brought the matter to our attention when he said he didn’t want to see the two players anywhere near the training ground. The head coach said he did not have Zvasiya in his plans at all for next season,’’ Marechera said. With Dynamos travelling away to Bulawayo City tomorrow at Barbourfields, it is highly unlikely that Mukamba could be considered for tomorrow’s game nor the penultimate match against Bantu Rovers at the same venue. But the midfielder, who at the peak of his powers in 2013, was named Warriors captain by German coach Klaus Dieter Pagels could be recalled for Dynamos’ final league assignment against Chicken Inn at home. After facing Bulawayo City tomorrow, Dynamos will return to the city for a date against relegated Bantu Rovers before winding off their 2017 campaign with a home assignment against Chicken Inn.