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Ellina Mhlanga-Senior Sports Reporter 

YESTERDAY marked a year since the passing on of CAPS United legend Joe “Kode” Mugabe, and his brother Innocent said plans are underway to have a football tournament in his memory. 

Mugabe died of cancer last year in August, in Reading, England. 

Innocent said he is working on establishing a tournament — The Joe Mugabe Memorial Trophy — to be held annually, starting from next year as a way of remembering his late brother.  “I am planning to do a Joe Mugabe Memorial Trophy every year, from next year. 

“It should be done and will be played in Mabvuku, so that the Mabvuku community will have that trophy.

“I am still to see whether it (will be) primary schools or secondary schools or Inno Cosmos because there are four teams in Mabvuku in Harare Division Two League… So I am thinking we might just get together every year and have a tournament — Joe Mugabe Memorial Trophy — which will start from next year.

“I am working on it.” 

Mugabe’s family yesterday took some time to visit his resting place at Glen Forest Memorial Park in Harare as they remembered the late CAPS United legend.

Innocent said it has been difficult for the family but they have tried to support each other as they deal with the grief. 

“It is a year since my brother Joe Mugabe passed away, so we are just remembering him. We have just been to Glen Forest, so we are just coming from there. We have been there with the family.

“It’s just a reminder that Joe has gone for a year and the family is still thinking about him. It’s been a shock to us up to now, we still don’t know what to do. Since the day he passed away, we still think like he is there somewhere.

“The pain is still the same and because he was the person that I would talk to anytime I needed to talk to, I would phone him but now sometimes I am even lost to myself out there.

“My sisters live here in Zimbabwe and I am in the UK, so we just talk on a daily basis, we just remind each other to be strong and try to just stay positive because there are things that you can’t change… Life has got to go on, we are just trying to support each other as a family and try to be strong,” said Innocent.

The United Kingdom-based former CAPS United and Air Zimbabwe Jets forward runs the Bob Joshua Mugabe (BJM) Academy and owns a ZIFA Northern Region Division Two side, Inno Cosmos. 

He said the projects have helped him deal with the loss of his brother. 

“I have been to the academy. I have got a Division Two side, the academy has grown, there is Inno Cosmos playing in Division Two now, so they played on the weekend against Glenview Academy, the league match which I went to watch and they won 4-1. I think my football projects have been keeping me going.

“Personally, I have been hands on my football projects from the day the funeral ended, I have just been focusing on football. It’s something that is personally keeping me going,” said Innocent.