EIGHT YEARS LATER, EDZAI DIED AND THAT’S WHAT HAS BROUGHT US HERE…WE HAVE OUR DISAGREEMENTS, OF COURSE WE DO, BUT BEFORE WE REACH FOR HATE, WE SHOULD ALWAYS, ALWAYS REMEMBER THE WARRIORS JUST CHECK THE FOCUS . . . This image shows Edzai Kasinauyo in full flight during his days at Moroka Swallows when the Soweto club were still part of the South African Premiership
JUST CHECK THE FOCUS . . . This image shows Edzai Kasinauyo in full flight during his days at Moroka Swallows when the Soweto club were still part of the South African Premiership

JUST CHECK THE FOCUS . . . This image shows Edzai Kasinauyo in full flight during his days at Moroka Swallows when the Soweto club were still part of the South African Premiership

THEN, just like now, it was winter and the bar at the City Lodge, a Johannesburg hotel tucked in the shadows of the giant Oliver Tambo International Airport complex, provided the unusual setting for our late night meeting.

Then, just like now, another edition of the FIFA Confederation Cup was well and truly underway, then just like now, the British and Irish Lions were on tour, and then just like now, the club closest to the heart of my Game Plan colleague Charles “CNN” Mabika, Middlesbrough, had just been relegated from the English Premiership.

Then, just like now, the transfer of a highly-rated Zimbabwean footballer was a dominant theme in the coverage of the domestic newspapers and, where Marvelous Nakamba’s $3,34 million move to Club Brugge is taking pride of place today, back then it was the signing of a teenage Zimbabwean forward by Kaizer Chiefs that was making headlines.

I had arrived at the City Lodge three days earlier, on assignment to cover the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup, and found a Johannesburg reeling from one of its worst winter seasons and, having come from sunny Harare, a big part of me was longing for the comforts of home rather than the excitement that came with covering a tournament that featured the Boys From Brazil.

The arrival of my guest cheered my spirits and blew away the pain of loneliness, which had plagued me since my arrival at the City Lodge, and we chose a good corner in the bar to have our tea and a conversation dominated by football.

That we even ordered tea in that smoky bar, packed with noisy white guys gulping litres of alcohol as if there wasn’t a tomorrow and talking about nothing, but rugby with an English accent that was hard to grasp especially on the occasions they argued — something they did with frequency that night — was something that appeared out of order.

They say the more things change, the more they stay the same.

And, for goodness sake, Charlie’s Middlesbrough were relegated this year with an identical number of losses (20), the same number of defeats this English club suffered when they went down back in 2009 and then, just like now, they finished the campaign second from the bottom.

Then, just like now, Sunday Chidzambwa was having a dance with the Warriors, in charge of our quest for success at the COSAFA Castle Cup, a tournament that his men won on home soil with that 3-1 victory over Zambia in the final at Rufaro.

But, we know that it’s not really true that the passage of time, and all the shifting of seasons we have seen from the winter of 2009 to the winter of 2017 — despite all the similarities in a number of events across the world — nothing has changed.

WHO SAID THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THEY STAY THE SAME?

After all, it’s only a day after we bade farewell to a musical icon, Cde Chinx, the iconic voice of the liberation struggle, who was laid to rest yesterday, a hero whose death represents the moment, to quite a huge constituency in this country, when their music finally died.

The man who will forever be the symbol of our Songs of Freedom, just like the immortal Bob Marley, with whom he shares the bond of singing for Zimbabwe’s Independence, with Bob telling the world, in those enduring lyrics, “We gonna fight (we gon’ fight), fight for our rights, Natty Dread it in-a (Zimbabwe), Africans a-liberate (Zimbabwe), yeah.’’

Fittingly, Bob Marley was there when we finally came of age, on April 18, 1980, to witness our Independence and, as if fate would have it, Redemption Song, one of his all-time greatest hits is the final track from his album, Uprising, was written on the eve of our Independence after he had been diagnosed with the cancer that would eventually take his life.

On June 13 1980, of course it had to be June, in that month of my meeting with my special guest in that City Lodge bar, Bob introduced Redemption Song to the world, fittingly doing so in that huge stadium that is the home of Borussia Dortmund, telling his audience, “this song is called ‘The Pirates Yes They Rob I, Sold I To The Merchant Ship’.”

Four months later, in October 1980, Redemption Song was released as a single in France and the United Kingdom.

And, for me, although there is a lot in similarities, between the events unfolding in this winter and what was happening back to the winter of 2009 when I sat down with my special guest in that City Lodge bar, the brutal reality is that, like what another departed superstar whose revolutionary songs inspired a generation, Simon Chimbetu, told us in those enduring lyrics — Pane Asipo.

“Gungano ramaita iri, pane vamwe vasipo

Mabiko ataita aya, pane vamwe vasipo

Kuguta kwataita uku, pane vamwe vasina

 

“Tatadza kukanganwa isu, kukanganwa takoniwa

Jojo akasarako kusango, Mollie akasara ikoko

Love akasarako kuhondo, Jonah akasara ikoko

 

“Mweya wadzungaira mweya, mweya wadzungaira

Mavaudza amai vake here, kuti mwana wenyu akashaikaka

Akafira musango kure, nyika dzisina naniwo

Makumbira kunzinza rake here, kuti tambirai mwana uyu kani

Mupei pekugara azorore, igamba rehondo.’’

Edzai Kasinauyo, my good guest that winter night for that meeting we had at the bar in the City Lodge, is no more — just eight years down the line, gone at the young age of 42, just two years after crossing that divide they tell us represents the beginning of life.

Edzai, the boy I had first met in the ‘90s as a midfielder at Blackpool with a cultured left foot that carried the weight of many a team’s attack and a vision that could be trusted to find teammates in scoring positions.

Edzai, the one who struck me back then in my years when reporting about domestic football was my main beat as someone with an enduring passion to always try and be better than what he was in the last game, even on the occasions he had been the man-of-the-match.

Edzai, the boy I picked out back then when I first saw him playing for Ndochi, as someone who appeared different, the one who instantly charmed me with his discipline, his quest to always try and do the right things.

Edzai, the one who proved me right, years later, that he was different when, unlike many of his colleagues who seemingly lose their way in the mist of the confusion that follows the end of their playing days, he transformed himself into a successful businessman.

He called me Mudhara, from the first time we met back in the ‘90s to the very last time we met in his car in the parking lot of Alexandra Sports Club this year, his respect for others a part of his DNA.

His humility a refreshing quality in an era dominated by footballers with highly-inflated egos who, in their deeply flawed beliefs, somehow believe they are from another planet and the rest of us, who were either not blessed with the talent that God gave them or chose to pursue other avenues, are lesser human beings.

TOO BAD MATE, FATE ENSURED I DIDN’T GET THE CHANCE TO SAY YOU WERE RIGHT

We had been talking for more than two hours, in the candle-lit surroundings of that City Lodge bar on that winter night back in 2009, when I suddenly saw a sparkle in Edzai’s eyes, something I hadn’t seen all night since his arrival.

Then, he told me his story, what had led him to drive in that blistering cold from his home in Johannesburg to meet me at my hotel, the real reason he had been desperate to talk to me since learning that I was in town to cover the FIFA Confederations Cup.

“Mudhara, I have a teenage boy I’m bringing from home to sign for Kaizer Chiefs and I can tell you Mudhara he is the best raw football talent, the best raw diamond I have seen in this game in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia or any part of Southern Africa in a very long time,’’ he said with both authority and an element of pride.

“This boy, Mudhara, is very, very special and I can tell you that he will be making huge waves here very, very soon and he won’t be in this country for a long time, so the fans here, especially the Chiefs fans will have to enjoy what he will provide to their team while it lasts because, in just a flash, he will be gone to Europe.

“You know, Mudhara, the funny thing is that this boy I am talking about never played in the Premiership back home and that’s exactly why I am here, to ask for you to support him, in the event he struggles at the beginning, because this boy will be an asset for our Warriors.’’

And, interestingly, Edzai told me he was saying all this after having watched this footballer playing in just one match.

If he had been part of the British and Irish Lions fans, most of whom had long lost their senses of judgment to the power of alcohol, I would have understood why my guest appeared to have drifted away from reality into fantasy.

But we had been drinking nothing, but tea all night, both of us were sober, nobody had spiked our tea, and so, I wondered, why my guest now appeared to have lost his senses, was it because, as an agent, it was his job to give a glowing CV about his client?

I looked Edzai straight in the eye, to try and find any hint of mischief, and found nothing, just steely conviction.

And, so, in that City Lodge bar in Johannesburg in the winter of 2009, I was given the first expert appraisal of Knowledge Musona and, as Edzai had predicted that night, the Smiling Assassin would explode in Super Diski, move to Europe and become the most valuable asset for the Warriors since King Peter Ndlovu.

The Smiling Assassin who, just like King Peter, has just been handed the responsibility to be captain of the Warriors.

Our talismanic forward who, just like the King himself back in the days when Edzai was also a player, has not only led his Warriors to the Nations Cup finals, but found a way to score at that tournament.

Who, just two weeks ago, became the first Warriors’ skipper to score a hat-trick in an AFCON Cup match and who, in the last three Nations Cup matches we have played at home — where we have scored 10 goals without reply — he has scored half the number of those goals.

Who, only this time last year, was celebrating not only playing a leading role in taking us to our first AFCON finals, but was enjoying his honeymoon, which he had put on hold for the sake of his national duty, after marrying his childhood sweetheart.

Today, we come together again, not to celebrate how the Smiling Assassin has, as predicted by Edzai on that winter night in the City Lodge bar in 2009, exploded into the real deal, but to say goodbye to the man who helped opened avenues for him to become the good player that he is today.

The man who convinced Ajax Cape Town to invest in Khama Billiat, and the rest is history, the man who convinced Bobby Motaung to take a chance on Willard Katsande and, again, the rest is history.

We all saw Ronald “Rooney” Chitiyo shedding tears for his departed manager, on Wednesday night after scoring a beauty for CAPS United against Al Ahli Tripoli, struggling with the emotions of losing such a strong pillar who was on the verge of sealing a deal for him.

ON DARK DAYS LIKE THESE, I REMEMBER THE TITANS

In times like these I think about that blockbuster movie, Remember The Titans starring Denzel Washington, which is based on a true story of how an American college football team, T.C. Williams High School, helped smash the barriers of hatred, built along racial divisions, which plagued the residents of the United States city of Alexandria in Virginia in the early ‘70s.

Washington plays the role of Herman Boone, an African-American handed the impossible job of becoming the first head coach of a predominantly white school in town, taking charge of a racially-divided team, in a racially-divided city.

And, to make matters worse, his assistant is a white coach, Bill Yoast, played by Will Parton, whose star players are Gerry Bertier, a white student, and Julius Campbell, a black student.

“In Virginia, high school football is a way of life, it’s bigger than Christmas Day,” Sheryl Yoast, the firebrand little daughter of assistant coach Bill, says in one of the enduring quotes of the movie. “My daddy coached in Alexandria, he worked so hard my momma left him, but I stayed with coach, he needed me on that field.”

Somehow, against all the odds, the T.C. Williams High School football team, known as the ‘Titans’, find a way to work with each other, and they march on to a 13-game winning streak to win their first state championship.

The more the Titans succeed, the more they shattered the racial barriers that had, for years, divided their city and by the time the team fought for the state championship, things had changed forever in Alexandria.

But, where there is success — just like in our case with Edzai right now — tragedy is always looming on the horizon.

Gerry, the star linebacker, is badly injured — just before the match for the state championship — when his car is hit by another vehicle, leaving him paralysed from the waist downwards.

Gerry is forced to watch from his hospital bed as his fellow Titans capture the state championship, in a stunning triumph for the power of race relations, but stalked by tragedy throughout his life, he dies 10 years later when his car is hit by a drunken driver.

His funeral, which is the final chapter of the movie, brings back his old Titans’ teammates and coaches and Sheryl Yoast, now 10 years older than the firebrand little daughter of the team’s white assistant coach, provides a moving closing chapter.

“Ten years later, Gerry died and that’s what has brought us here. People say that it can’t work, black and white, well, here we make it work. WE HAVE OUR DISAGREEMENTS, OF COURSE, BUT BEFORE WE REACH FOR HATE, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, WE REMEMBER THE TITANS,” she says as the former players sing a farewell song for their departed teammate.

That could be a fitting farewell for Edzai, too because “gungano rataita iri, pane mumwe asipo.’’

TO GOD BE THE GLORY!

Come on Warriors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Edzaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

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Chat with me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter @Chakariboy, interact with me on Viber or read my material in The Southern Times or on www.sportszone.co.zw. The authoritative ZBC weekly television football magazine programme, Game Plan, is back on air and you can interact with me and the legendary Charles “CNN” Mabika every Monday evening.

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