Dembare juju takes centre stage

THE Dynamos leadership has come out against the use of juju amid reports of a dressing room split over some unorthodox practices pushed by members of the technical department.

Dynamos fired coach Herbert Maruwa on Tuesday following a goalless draw against Hwange at Barbourfields, which left DeMbare nine points off leaders Highlanders.

The club also suspended, without pay, second assistant coach Murape Murape and manager Richard Chihoro over undisclosed misdemeanours.

Dynamos are ready to give Genesis Mangombe ample time to prove himself as coach after he was appointed on an interim basis with help from Lloyd "Mablanyo" Chigove.

Mangombe starts the new era with a tough Chibuku Super Cup clash against Simba Bhora, coached by last season's Dynamos coach Tonderai Ndiraya, at Barbourfields this afternoon.

Maruwa was sacked after failing, at the first hurdle, to meet the five-match winning target they had agreed on with the team's executive.

In two separate interviews with Zimpapers Sports through The Couch on ZTN Prime (DStv Channel 294) and Daily Sports Zone show hosted on Star FM, Dynamos vice chairman Vincent Chawonza gave an insight on what was happening behind the scenes at the club prior to the current developments.

Chawonza revealed that though mathematically it was still possible to win the league, the club had to axe Maruwa before it was too late, as the team had suffered from inconsistency.

"Mathematically it's still possible to win the championship but after we met in our game reviews which we discuss what we should do to keep in track with the leading team.

"We had to win and close the gap between us and Highlanders. No matter where we are on Matchday 18 it wasn't helping as the gap was increasing.

"There was no consistency in the way we were playing. Winning a match today and losing the next one.

"So for us to keep in track with the log leaders we agreed that we needed to win five games and gave the coach a five game ultimatum in which he faltered.

"Things were simply going out of hand and we acted."

Chawonza believes they were even lenient with the coach after he once earned only four points out of a possible 15 when he was least expected to collect 10 points.

Maruwa was on a performance based contract with the club.

It seems Maruwa had lost control of the dressing room as some players were now approaching the club leadership on the use of juju allegedly being forced on them.

"At one point we drew four consecutive games and we lost the fifth game and that was four points out of 15. But we were lenient with the coach as we sat down with the guys and say let's give him time.

"We have had certain complaints from the team," said Chawonza.

"Everyone has his own beliefs but disagreements can only rise in the team when one forces others to believe in their own beliefs. In the team we have Christians, ATR, Muslims and so forth, so we had the coach forcing players to oblige to his beliefs.

"Then that will demoralise some players, imagine some player is a Christian and is given some Juju from a sangoma to put in the socks.

"So those were some of the complaints we received within the club."

Chawonza said the club is looking to invest more in sport science than being associated with juju.

In the beginning of the season Chihoro also had his video going viral as he sprinkled an unknown substance on the goalpost. The act was interpreted as an act of practicing juju. The club was fined by the PSL for misconduct.

"The current setup at Dynamos right now is we are one family and we don't ascribe to juju and spiritual things over sport as a science.

"What we want is to play football as a sport with scientific methods to win the games.

"We are not going to ascribe to any form of Juju moving forward. Culture change is difficult to come up with in any organisation as people will try to resist change. Though at times it's painful, it's necessary.

"To our fans nothing has changed. There is still order in our camp and you are set to witness some of our best days."