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Veronica Gwaze

Sports Reporter

IT is a Friday morning in 2021 and Dynamos are preparing to leave for Baobab Stadium where they are set to face Black Rhinos in a high stakes Chibuku Super Cup match.

While the team is excited to be back to travelling after Covid-19 induced halt on sports, it is a different case with Chioniso Mashakada, who at the time was the only female at the club.

Two years ago, at the age of 23 years, she was acting as the club Media Officer, following the departure of former Zimpapers award-winning female journalist, Yvonne Mangunda.

And with the myths that have marred the club for years on how the camp despised the presence of women in their midst under the pretext that it yielded bad omen, Mashakada was uneasy.  

In fact, she was not sure if the team wanted to travel with her or not and what would happen to her in the event that they lost the game.

She was to call her superiors who, much to her surprise, told her that she was to travel to Ngezi by bus with the rest of the team.

The journey, she recalls, was longer than usual as she feared for her future, had the team lost in that match.

Much to her relief, Dynamos won that Super Cup match courtesy of a solitary Frank Makarati winning goal.

“When Mangunda was around, we never travelled. So when the time came after her departure, I was uncomfortable, you know the popular stories around Dynamos and women in their camp,” she said.

“I actually called the club chairman to inquire if I was travelling too… he said yes. The journey was long, my fear was that if the team lost they would blame it on my presence.

“Surprisingly, they treated me as one of them and it has been my chance to live my childhood dream.”

While many got to know Mashakada when she replaced Mangunda in 2021, her love for Dynamos actually started when she was still at Mpopoma High School in Bulawayo. During sports time, she preferred to go and watch soccer.

Even when Dynamos played in Bulawayo, she would hatch a plan to go and watch the match while at times she had to watch their games on television.

It is only when she was in form three that female soccer was introduced at the school and she joined.

However, she recalls how it was not easy for her to follow her passion at that time as society would not accept that a girl can love soccer and even attend matches.

In 2018, at the age of 16, she enrolled at Bulawayo Polytechnic where she was studying marketing.

As if the Dynamos gods were pulling her closer to her destiny, she soon found herself in Harare on attachment.

In that whole year, she attended all Dynamos home games.

The environment at Rufaro Stadium, she said, cemented her love for the club.

In 2019, while she was back home after attachment she decided to open social media accounts so that she could keep abreast with news.

Surprisingly, she found herself only posting football news.

“It was just out of my love of the game so one day I came across an advert where Star FM were looking for an intern and I decided to try out,” she said.

“My parents agreed to it so I travelled to Harare, Star FM. We were many and how I ended up being the lucky one is a story for another day.

“My Star FM journey started in Bulawayo and I recall getting a message from Steve Vickers inquiring if I was writing scripts myself or someone was doing it for me, this is also how I got to write for H-Metro Sport.”

She still has fresh memories of the day in 2020 when she got a call from Mangunda, a call that literally transformed her life.

“It is when Covid-19 protocols had just been eased when she called and asked me to join her at DeMbare as her intern,” she reminisced.

“At first, I thought it was a dream that I would soon wake up from… it was a dream come true so I did not think twice, I took the offer right away.”

Under the tutelage of Mangunda, Mashakada did not encounter any difficulties. However, in July 2021, her mentor left, thrusting her into the deep end. 

“When she left, I thought that was also the end of my romance with the club but I was surprised when they told me that they still needed me onboard.

“I doubted myself, my age and the fact that I was virtually known I thought I would not pull through.

“The first days were tough but the club was supportive and Mangunda would also checkup and guide me all the way. 

“Not that I did not have the knowledge but I was wondering if I would be able to handle the pressure at Dynamos but I adjusted and now I am settled, I feel at home.”

Mashakada has been commendable in giving a new lease of life to DeMbare’s marketing and communications field.

With a female intern now under guidance, she is also behind the team’s media visibility and aggressive marketing of their replica jerseys