The Sunday News
Lovemore Dube
SHADRECK Nduna Ngwenya had a meteoric rise to stardom making his first international debut, barely a season in the elite league in 1969.
His star continued to rise taking him from Chibuku Shumba to Dynamos and then later Moroka Swallows.
Sunday News caught up with Ngwenya on Thursday and he was very welcoming and told his own football story at his Ntabazinduna Centre home. His dining room is decorated with medals and coaching certificates.
Sunday News’ Lovemore Dube (LD) talks to Shadreck Ngwenya (SN) this week.
LD: I am surprised you are from Ntabazinduna but most of what is known about your career is when you were in Harare and South Africa. Who is Shadreck Ngwenya?
SN: I was born in Bulawayo on 23 July 1947 in a family of nine and I am the fourth born. Football genes did not run in the family. My dad was a famed fighter who however, did not go to the professional ranks.
LD: Which schools did you attend?
SN: I went to Lobengula Primary School and proceeded to Mpopoma High School where I was not so keen on school team football.
LD: During your time boys’ football was popular, who are some of the guys you remember from your formative years in the sport?
SN: I grew up in X Square in Mzilikazi and we were neighbours with Bosso great Billy Sibanda. We played street football and I was active in the boys’ clubs where I attended and played at Tshaka Youth Centre regularly.
LD: When did your club breakthrough come?
SN: As I grew up in Mzilikazi I was attracted to All Blacks who at one time played as Northern Rhodesia or Zambia after Independence under the Bulawayo African Football Association now the Bulawayo Amateur Football Association (Bafa). Most of the guys were from my neighbourhood and among them was Willard Khumalo’s father, Danny Mashinkila, John Walker Chipukula was no longer so active but there were others like 303 Maruma we looked up to. This was in the early 1960s and at school I found no incentive in playing football. At All Blacks after a game where we played just for recreation, there were refreshments such as a bottle of Fanta or CocaCola and bread. To us that was a lot.
LD: So Ngwenya when did you break into the real competitive football?
SN: I played for All Blacks up to about 1968 and then unknown to me there were some Indian guys who used to watch my team’s games and were related to a Chibuku Shumba official, a Mr Khan.
They told the Harare club official that there was a big and strong centreback in Bulawayo which is how I got to play in the capital. I had been encouraged a lot by the Northern Rhodesia goalkeeping legend John Walker.The good thing with Chibuku is that they were a multi-racial team during those troubled Rhodesia days.
LD: Were there no incidents where you felt insulted as a black player?
SN: Racism was rife. When we went to play teams like Salisbury Callies we would not be allowed to go into their dressing rooms. Black players would go where equipment for the facility and things like whitewash were kept and change.
LD: How was the situation at Chibuku Shumba? What measures did Chibuku put in place for you to be comfortable in the face of racial abuse?
SN: There the situation was better because they had both black and white players. We played with Rob Jordan, Billy Sharman, Topsy Robertson, Mike Tivitis, John Humphrey and Rick Fulton who had arrived with Kizito Tembo and Twyman Ncube from Hwange. There were other guys at the club like Peter Nyama, John Madondo and Siphon Mukwena.
At Chibuku we were advised that we would be called all sorts of names from monkey to kaffir. We were psyched up for that kind of abuse but advised to concentrate on playing our game.
LD: Early memories about your first days at Chibuku Shumba . . .
SN: When you arrived as trialists, you were made to play against the first team to prove your worth. I did not take long, actually I walked into the team with ease. That year, 1969 I missed the first match against Australia, a drawn match which was a World Cup qualifier. In the second leg in Maputo I was thrust into the team where I gave it my all but we lost 1-0. I was happy to have been among the country’s best players who included James Chibaya, Philemon Tigere, Gibson Homela, Rob Jordan, Billy Sharman and James Nxumalo.
LD: Any notable achievements with Chibuku Shumba?
SN: Yes, the national team call ups, winning the Chibuku Trophy a number of times.
LD: You were with Chibuku Shumba up to 1973, why did you leave the club after you had seemingly made such an impressive start to your career and stay in Harare?
SN: Many clubs were complaining that Chibuku Shumba appeared to dominate the Chibuku Trophy yet it was sponsored by the same company which financed the club. Because of the many complaints the directors decided to dissolve the team.
LD: Was returning home where there were clubs like Highlanders, Eastlands and Zimbabwe Saints not an option?
SN: Morrison Sifelani who was my home boy and Dynamos chairman enticed me to join Dynamos. He knew me from home and Harare where I stayed in New Canaan and him at Highfields.
LD: Who did you find at Dynamos as players?
SN: Charles Gwatidzo, George Yoyo, George Shaya, David George, Simon Sachiti, Sherperd Murape, Shaw Handriade, David Phiri, Ernest Kamba, Kuda Muchemeyi and Matthew Mwale and Oliver Kateya like Sunday Chidzambwa arrived later from Metal Box. It was a great side with very talented players led by George Shaya which was hungry for success and was eager to win the league title. We were to be successful, winning several tournaments like the Nyore Nyore Trophy, Castle Cup and the 1976 league championship.
LD: But labamba inkunzi Mdala iHighlanders! (You cheated Highlanders out of the 1976 championship). In all honesty did you celebrate that?
SN: At times in sport you celebrate cheating. We did. But nowadays times have changed, there is emphasis on Fair Play. I don’t think I would celebrate winning that way. (Needing just a draw, Highlanders did not travel to Barbourfields because the pitch was waterlogged. The Rhodesia National Football League led by John Madzima and Peter Nemapare was advised by both club and Bulawayo City Council and awarded Dynamos a walkover which saw DeMbare pip Bosso to the championship by a solitary point).
We also won the Castle Cup that year, we probably deserved the league title because we worked hard that year.
LD: You were part of the team that won the Southern Africa Club Championship the same year, how did it feel?
SN: It felt great beating Orlando Pirates who were on top gear then. There was an air of invincibility and commitment by all at Dynamos which spared us on.
LD: You were on the road again at the end of 1977….
SN: Moroka Swallows wanted a defender and a midfielder to bolster their squad. Morrison Sifelani was friends with Swallows treasurer David Chabeli and he assured me that I would be well taken care of there. He had a relative married to someone at Swallows who I would stay with.
Max Tshuma was the other player identified so we found ourselves at Dube near the train station in Soweto. I miss those days.
Since I was from Ntabazinduna and Bulawayo, language was not a problem.
LD: How was your stay there, did you win anything tangible?
SN: Unfortunately during my stay there in 1978 and 1979, Pirates, Durban City and Kaizer Chiefs were on top of their game.
The best I remember was going as far as the semi-finals of some tournament where we were beaten by Wits University.
LD: How did you rate the South African game then?
SN: There was too much showboating. The players including defenders played to entertain the crowd. You would even find a defender backheeling a pass to the goalkeeper, something that was unheard of. They had skill and passion for what they did whereas we tended as Zimbabweans to be more direct.
One year when the late Onias Musana was at Swallows he would get the ball and race towards goal and no one would support him. When he lost the ball the South African players would all say, “hey play the ball to our feet, don’t run away with it.”
Hahaha that was funny, that was not what we played here.
LD: How was it rubbing shoulders with the likes of big names Andreas “Six Mabone” Maseko, Joel Ace Mnini, Shakes Mashaba, Phil Setshedi?
SN: I played with Maseko, Mnini and Mashaba at Swallows. They were good players, extremely talented and a delight to have in the same team. The opposition had Jomo Sono at Pirates, a trouble maker who was hard to contain, gifted with a lot of trickery. Chiefs on the other end had crowd pleasers Ace Ntsoelongoe and Teenage Dladla who I saw on television recently, he is grown old. I stay in touch with Mashaba the Bafana Bafana coach.
LD: You were just there for two years in South Africa, why did you come back despite all those rave reviews you enjoyed? A number of your countrymen Musana, Tshuma, Ebson Sugar Muguyo, Douglas Maneto and Robert Godoka were finding their feet there with Sugar attaining legend status.
SN: It’s a decision I regret to this day. I should have stayed on. Zimbabwe was getting its Independence in 1980 and John Madzima then the football association threatened that we would be banned if we stayed in South Africa who were in international isolation.
The lifting of Zimbabwe’s suspension meant we could as a country resume playing international football. Madzima must have wanted all the country’s top players in South Africa available for national duty.
LD: Why did you opt for Black Aces instead of Dynamos your former club?
SN: Chibuku Shumba re-invented itself and campaigned as Black Aces sponsored by Blue Line Dry Cleaners and a number of businessmen, it was joining old friends. I played with Archieford Chimutanda, a talented young man, Byron Emmanuel, David Muchineripi, Roderick Muganhiri and Fresh Chamarenga all brilliant footballers. I still however, regret why I came back.
LD: When did you retire?
SN: I retired in 1983 and went into coaching with relative success getting Metro Peech and Kadoma into Division One in my first year with them in 1984 and 1985 respectively.
LD: Oh good, a good start to your coaching career.
SN: I also won the Natbrew Under-18 tournament in 1985 with Kadoma United which had the likes of Stephen Shamuyarira who played in the Premiership at some stage. I stayed up to 1998 in Kadoma and then I came back home where I coached Prison TD from Division Two to Division One.
LD: When did you leave them?
SN: I left them two years ago because they were no longer able to pay me. I had been invited to coach by a senior officer who supported Dynamos who knew me from my days at the club.
LD: Who are the strikers you feared most during your time?
SN: George Rollo of Arcadia, Caps’ Shaky Tauro and Hwange strikers who included Nyaro Mumba.
LD: What do you think of the game today and do you attend matches?
SN: I was last at Barbourfields during the pre-season friendlies. The standards have gone down.
The flair is low and passion is lacking, they seem to play for money yet in our time it was for the love of the game and the pride of those you represented. There is not much of an incentive to watch the game.
LD: So what do you do in your spare time?
SN: I coach at the local field Under-12s and Form Threes and Fours. I don’t want to see them turn to vice. I am appealing to balls and sponsorship for these kids.
Ngwenya is a widower with two daughters Patience who was five when he returned from Swallows and Memory who was born here in 1980.
