After years of political bickering and attempts to forge unity across the political divide through dialogue, Members of Parliament from different political formations are trying to use football to preach peace to the nation.
The “Parliament Warriors” will play as curtain-raisers against a team from the captains of industry at tomorrow’s 2014 Fifa World Cup Group G qualifier between Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea at the National Sports Stadium.
The match comes at a time political violence claimed the life of an MDC-T activist and Mudzi North Ward chairman, Cephas Magura, who was 67, who was allegedly stoned to death by suspected Zanu PF supporters while attending his party’s rally at Chimukoko business centre on Sunday.
Known as the world’s most beautiful game, soccer is largely followed by thousands of fans from across the political divide and MPs said they had seen this as an occasion to preach peace to the thousands expected to throng the stadium.
MPs’ coach Senator Morgan Femai (MDC-T) said they were not taking the encounter as a mere curtain-raiser, but a strategy to unite their political parties.
“This is more than a curtain-raiser match,” said Femai. “It’s a historical moment for all the political parties in Zimbabwe. We want to promote peace in Zimbabwe through football. Football is uniting us on all fronts. We want to show people that we are united as MPs and they should also do the same,” said the MDC-T senator.
“We had more than 25 MPs from across the political divide at every training session which shows how important it is. Cabinet ministers have also joined in,” added Femai.
Yesterday, chairman of the Parliament Warriors, Jeffreyson Chitando (MDC-T) named a “strong” squad for the match.
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Alexio Musundure (MDC-T, Zengeza East) will be in goals while the tough-tackling Costin Muguti (MDC – T, Gokwe Kabuyuni), Blessing Chebundo (MDC-T, Kwekwe Central), Franco Ndambakuwa (Zanu PF, Magunje) and Festus Dumbu (MDC-T, Zaka West) are set to provide cover at the back.
The midfield will comprise of Chief Enos Musarurwa, the slippery Bright Matonga (Zanu PF, Mhondoro Ngezi), Lovemore Mpukuta (Zanu PF, Gokwe-Mapfungautsi) and Takalani Matibe (MDC-T, Chegutu West). The MPs look dangerous upfront where Douglas “Copac” Mwonzora (MDC-T, Nyanga North) has been impressive at training and looks set to lead the attack assisted by Trevor “Dread” Saruwaka (MDC-T, Mutasa Central) and Marvellous Khumalo (MDC-T, St Mary’s), who has been making a strong case for a place in the starting line-up and his ability to pack them from long range makes him a potential option upfront.
Organiser of the Captains of Industry team Desmond Ali said they wanted to teach the MPs a football lesson. He said his star-studded team would be captained by Kingdom Bank boss Nigel Chanakira while other high-profile names expected to feature in the Executives team would include Major Mahlangu, Dallas Sekawawana, Wilfred Munamati, Benson Gasura, Wellington Dangarembizi and Maxine Karombo.
This is not the first time soccer has been used to lure political activists to work together and minimise political confrontations.
Recently, the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (Jomic) received 1 000 soccer balls from the United Nations Development Programme to distribute to communities for members from all the parties to engage in soccer tournaments.
