car on the roads of the Zambian capital.
The reference is linked to the Zambian Airforce Buffalo DHC-50 that went down off the coast of Gabon, after a refueling stop in Libreville on April 27 ‘93, wiping out a generation of the nation’s finest footballers.
Beauty Lupiya, a journalist who a week before the crash had accompanied the Zambian team to Mauritius aboard the same plane, revealed that emerging explosive striker, Kelvin Mutale, joked during that flight that the plane would crash.
Mutale scored a hattrick in Mauritius and, as Zambia embraced the emergence of a striker they could trust to deliver, little did the nation know that those goals would be his last.
On an earlier flight, across the Indian Ocean to Madagascar, the captain of the plane had told the players to put on their life jackets.
Fate saved Kalusha Bwalya, when his teammates met their death in the Atlantic, given that he was supposed to fly directly from his base in Holland to Dakar where the Zambians were scheduled to play Senegal in a ’94 World Cup qualifier.
“The boys always used to say this plane will kill us some day,” Kalusha told British newspaper, The Independent, last week.
Well, Kalusha rallied his country to fight for the cause of his departed colleagues and a hastily-assembled team held the Warriors in Harare to qualify for the ’94 Nations Cup finals and, crucially, went to Morocco needing to avoid defeat to qualify for the ’94 World Cup finals.
But in a match blighted by controversial officiating, in which referee Jean-Fidel Diramba hogged the limelight for his biased handling that gave Morocco a helping hand, the Zambians suffered an agonising 0-1 defeat and their World Cup dreams were over.
That Diramba was from Gabon, at a time when conspiracy theories about foul play on the doomed Zambian plane were flourishing, provided the fuel that sent the emotions exploding across a country still grieving from its darkest hour.
Soon, on the streets of Lusaka, anything that was bad was referred to as Diramba.
In a few months time, the clock will show that 19 years have passed since that plane crash that left an enduring impact on the lives of Zambians.
Even today, a feeling of bitterness and the echoes of that tragedy, still remain alive in Lusaka.
“Innuendoes against Gabon will continue to fly for as long as memories of the crash, the frustrated searchers, the almost triumphant grin of a referee named Diramba, linger on in the Zambian mind,” wrote The Times of Zambia.
“It’s just as well the draw for this tournament placed Zambia in Equatorial Guinea not in Gabon, who are co-hosts.”
But you feel there is something special happening for the Zambians in this tournament and while they have played the most attractive football so far in the early group games, it’s hard to ignore that there is a spirit that is also driving their cause.
For how do we explain that the Zambians’ first goal against Senegal came in the 12th minute and somehow it coincides with the fact that the 2012 Nations Cup will end on February 12?
Just a coincidence?
Probably!
If so, then how do we explain that the Zambians’ second goal against the Senegalese came in the 21st minute and, somehow, it coincides with the fact that the 2012 Nations Cup started on January 21?
Maybe, I am the one who is getting hysterical but, refreshingly, I’m not the only one.
I read the following story on the internet this week and made interesting reading.

Sangoma Predicts Zambian Success At 2012 AFCON
DURBAN – A South African traditional healer and fortune teller claims Chipolopolo will win this year’s Africa Cup -especially given that their two goals against Senegal coincide with the date this year’s Africa Cup finals started and will end.
Sangoma Mchuzu told South African radio station, Ukhodzi fm, God told him earlier this month that Zambia would bag this year’s Africa Cup.
“God told me in my sleep that this year was for Zambia . . . there is no doubt about it,” Mchudzu said.
“Remember that Zambia scored their first goal in the 12th minute, which is the exact date the Africa Cup will end. They scored their second goal in the 21st minute, which is the date the Africa Cup started.
“This confirms God’s message to me that Zambia will win. Let’s all South Africans rally behind our Zambian neighbours so that they truly win,” the Sangoma said.
Emmanuel Mayuka opened the scoreline for Zambia after 12 minutes, with Rainford Kalaba doubling their lead nine minutes later – www.tumfweko.com

The Worst 10 Sporting Airline Disasters
5 – Torino Football Club
The Superga air disaster took place on Wednesday, 4 May, 1949, when a plane carrying almost the entire Torino AC football squad, popularly known as Il Grande Torino, crashed into the hill of Superga, near Turin, killing all 31 aboard, including 18 players, club officials, journalists accompanying the team and the plane’s crew. The emotional impact the crash made on Italian sports fans was profound, as it claimed the lives of the players of a legendary team which had won the last Serie A title before the league play was interrupted in 1944 by World War II and had then returned after the conflict to win four consecutive titles (1946-1949).

4 – Manchester United Football Club
On 6 February, 1958, British European Airways Flight 609 crashed on its third attempt to take off from a slush-covered runway at Munich-Riem Airport in Munich, Germany. On board the plane was the Manchester United football team, nicknamed the ‘Busby Babes’, along with a number of supporters and journalists. 23 of the 44 people on board the aircraft died in the crash. The team was returning from a European Cup match in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, against Red Star Belgrade, but had to make a stop in Munich for refueling.

3 – United States Figure Skating Team
On February 15, 1961, Sabena Flight 548, a Boeing 707 bound from New York to Brussels Belgium, crashed during the approach for landing. All 72 on board were killed, as well as one person on the ground. Among the dead was the entire United States Figure Skating team, who were en route to the 1961 World Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia.

2 – Zambian National Football Team
The Zambian national football team was flying on a military plane on its way to Senegal for a 1994 World Cup qualification match, when the plane crashed in the late evening of April 27, 1993. All 30 passengers and crew, including 18 players, as well as the national team coach and support staff, were lost in the accident.

1 – Old Christians Rugby Union Club
Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, also known as the Miracle in the Andes, was a chartered flight carrying 45 people, including a rugby team and their friends, family and associates that crashed in the Andes on October 13, 1972. The last of the 16 survivors were rescued on December 23, 1972. Of the 45 people on the plane, 12 died in the crash or shortly thereafter; another five had died the next morning, and one more succumbed to injuries on the eighth day.
The remaining 27 faced severe difficulties in surviving high in the freezing mountains.
The survivors had little food and no source of heat in the harsh conditions, at over 3 600m and, faced with starvation, the survivors fed on the dead passengers who had been preserved in the snow. Rescuers did not learn of the survivors until 72 days after the crash and only sixteen would eventually survive.

Supporting The Chipolopolo Cause
A world battling with an economic crisis certainly needs a feel-good effect and I don’t believe there is any story right now that will charm the globe better than a Zambian success story at this Nations Cup finals.
The plot itself looks remarkable.
Just a year before the Zambians mark the 20th anniversary of that dark day when time appeared to stop, frozen in an instant by the disbelief triggered by the filtering news snippets of the tragedy that had unfolded off the coast of Gabon, fate has taken Chipolopolo back to Gabon.
And, it’s an energetic and promising Zambian side, too. Of course, they don’t have a genius like a Kalusha Bwalya.
But they have the teamwork that a national side needs for success, are fired on by a spirit that appears to convince them that they are on course for their date with destiny and they have a dynamic attacking team that can push any defence to the wall.
Question marks remain about their defensive solidity and they were repeatedly opened up by the Senegalese and Demba Ba was unlucky with that close range header that crashed against the crossbar.
It was hard to judge them in that potato field against Libya because the horrible playing conditions made it difficult for players to control the ball and play to their abilities.
But it’s easy to be charmed by this Zambian team and, two years to the month when we all felt they were unlucky to lose that quarter-final showdown against Nigeria through the penalty shootout lottery, you get a feeling they are ready to go the extra mile this time around.
Looking at this Zambian side, from a Zimbabwean perspective, you wonder as to what it is that they have, which keeps driving them to lofty heights, which our boys don’t have and now can only watch the drama of the Nations Cup finals from a distance.
It’s certainly not about quality because Rainford Kalaba plays the same role as Khama Billiat and the TP Mazembe forward, having watched him repeatedly, cannot be described as better than Khamaldinho.
At 25 and turning 26 in August, maybe Kalaba is at his peak, and Khamaldinho, who is still a raw 21, will probably get better with time, which can only buy us the comfort that tomorrow will bring a better day.
Inspirational skipper Chris Katongo turns 30 in August and has already left the European scene for what many believe to be a retirement package in China where he is playing his football today.
But we have Knowledge Musona, whose appeal is fresh enough to attract the attention of Bundesliga buyers, and he scored a glut of goals in the qualifying campaign but still ended up on the sidelines while Chris is turning into one of the stars of the tournament.
Their goalkeeper, just like our goalkeeper, plays for a Super Diski club and if you had to choose between Tapiwa Kapini and Kennedy Mweene, chances are that there would be very little to divide them.
Three years ago, Hichani Himoonde, captained the Zambian team that was well beaten 1-3 in the final of the Cosafa Senior Challenge Cup by our Warriors at Rufaro.
Three years later he is playing at the Nations Cup finals while our boys, who showed on that day that they were the better players, are watching from the sidelines.
Incredibly, while we are always ready to dump any player who gets past 30 years, because we believe he would have become too old even if he is playing competitive football in Europe, this Zambian team has a player who will be turning 35 in May – Joseph Musonda.
There is something that our brothers from the north of the Zambezi are doing right, when it comes to their football, which we are not.
And that is giving them the lift and it’s nothing to do with the quality of their players because I believe we are on the same wave length.

Botswana’s Date With Destiny
In the aftermath of Botswana’s brave performance against the Black Stars of Ghana, in the Zebras’ debut match at the Nations Cup finals, a lot of people have been praising our western neighbours for their plucky show.
I think the Zebras deserve every word of credit that is coming into their corner because they surprised a lot of people with their discipline, ability to keep their shape, the courage to take the Black Stars blow for blow and, crucially, the commitment to the same principles that had taken them to this level of the game.
Yes, they were at fault for the goal that they conceded from a set-piece, which only adds to the burden of frustration, but then we have to be real and understand that such things are common when you are playing at such a level for the first time.
Nerves, inevitably, come into play and their defenders were all ball watching, trying to pass responsibility, as that ball flew into their area and big John Mensah cashed in and scored.
But what impressed me the most was Botswana’s refusal to let that mistake overwhelm them and turn into the cancer that would consume their spirits, giving the Black Stars the freedom to repeatedly pummel at them as if they were a bunching bag.
To their credit, Botswana found a way to fight back and by midway in the second half they were full value for their showdown against the Black Stars and were unlucky not to get the equaliser they thoroughly deserved.
If I have a problem with the Zebras in that match, I think it has to do with their approach where they seemed not to believe that they could beat the Black Stars in a game that, as we later saw, was there for the taking.
You can’t understand how the Zebras can be playing at the Nations Cup while we are not because the best coaches, coaching in their local league that provides the bulk of the players in their team, are all Zimbabweans.
Their leading scorer is clubless because he has a problem with his contract at modest South African Premiership club, Santos, while our leading scorer is in the fast lane of the Bundesliga. Botswana lost their first game but they were victors, in every sense of it, and we can’t even try and criticise their performance because, unlike us, they are there dining with the heavyweights of African football.
Felix Tangawarima, our best referee by a mile, has been living in Botswana for some time now, working for Fifa, and he has seen, at close quarters, the Zebras’ football revolution.
But, talking to him this week, you get a feeling that he still feels our standards are miles ahead of our neighbours and, crucially, he believes we lack the kind of business approach that Botswana put into their football.
Very few can argue with that, Felix.

DeMbare Need To Be A Little
Professional
The events in Harare this week where Dynamos officials called a media conference to tell the world that they had just received a kit for the new season, when they pretty knew that was in conflict with the agreement they signed with BancABC to provide such a kit, was embarrassing to say the least.
There was a lot of damage control, in the days that followed, but only a fool will tell you that a team like Dynamos needs to call a media conference to show us donated training kit.
Someone slept on duty and believed that this was it, the playing kit, and the players were called in and paraded as if they were models for the newspaper and television cameras to capture the moment.
But Dynamos needs to move with the times and, at a time when they are attracting a lot of sponsors, they need to respect contracts and agreements and, if they have a bank that wants to supply them with Adidas training and playing kit, why then would they want to get another kit, clearly of inferior quality, somewhere?
At the Bob ’88 Super Cup launch, the FC Platinum skipper, Zeph Ngodzo came dressed in an FC Platinum tracksuit because he was representing his club.
The stand-in DeMbare skipper, Guthrie Zhokinyi, came in jeans and a T-shirt for an official club function.
It’s such small things that matter and Kenny Mubaiwa should help Dynamos move from such amateurism into an era where they become a beacon of professionalism consistent with their status as not only the biggest but also most successful Zimbabwean football club we have ever known.
Or will ever know.
Mistakes have been made and this leadership would have failed badly should they not pick big lessons from such elementary boobs.

The Rise And Rise Of The
Mighty Warriors
It’s a measure of how the Mighty Warriors have developed, under the leadership of Mavis Gumbo, that we were all disappointed they won only 1-0 in Botswana and, listening to the players and coaches, they all spoke of their disappointment that they didn’t play their normal game.
It’s a measure of how they have become such a competitive team that the girls are even bullish about their prospects of beating Nigeria should they complete the assignment tomorrow and eliminate the Zebra Queens.
There will certainly be a full-house at Rufaro tomorrow, partly because the Mighty Warriors’ matches are for free as the women continue to try and sell their brand, and partly because they are doing well for their country and people genuinely believe they have to be supported.
The stunning revolution that has happened to the Mighty Warriors shows us that we have capable leaders who, if they can put their minds on a project and work passionately for it, things can happen.
That template should be used for the Warriors because if Marange Resources are putting all that money into the Mighty Warriors, someone should bankroll the Warriors and, surely, with all the material that we have, we can’t fail to get it right to the Nations Cup finals in South Africa next year.
Come on Mighty Warriors !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Come on United !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chicharitoooooooooooooooooooooooo
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
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