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| Toronto Football Club Senior Team |
As a youngster growing up in Pumula East in a
section known as kuma 81, I learnt how to play football on a makeshift football
ground that is up to this day still referred to as Es’kwakweni. Back in the day
this ground was the size of a standard football pitch but efforts to erect some
goal posts were not successful as the gumtree poles gotten from the city
council plantation in the neighbouring suburb of Magwegwe always got stolen, presumably
to be used as firewood – which is rather ironic considering that they would not
have been acquired legally in the first place.
There were quite a number of local football
heroes that cut their teeth on that S’kwakwa and I know for certain that the
late former Warriors, Zimbabwe Saints and Highlanders defender Melusi Nkiwane
played there on a regular basis before he became a Super League player with
Chikwata.
Legend has it that former Eagles player
Stanford Ntini was one of the founders of that ground and I vividly remember
former Highlanders star Sizabantu Khoza and his brother Morrison Thulani , a former Zimbabwe youth international, coming
from Pumula North to take part in money games (imbeji).
Former Warriors linkman Peter Rio Moyo, who is
now with How Mine, and former Tsholotsho holding midfielder Butholezwe Ncube,
who is with AmaZulu in South Africa, are some of the current stars that used to
grace Is’kwakwa in their youth.
Of all the above mentioned players only Ntini,
Nkiwane and Ncube did stay for a while kuma 81 in the area where Is’kwakwa is
located, but it would not be proper to claim them as its products.
Is’kwakwa products that should have gone far in
their football careers include one Newboy Banda, now late, who was nicknamed
Ayashisa Amateki and spent a year trying his luck at CAPS United in Harare but
failed to make a breakthrough.
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| Toronto Football Club Under 18 |
Banda was a popular high school soccer star who
played alongside Nkiwane, Nation Dube and Agent Sawu at Pumula High School but
while his peers went on to scale great heights, he remained rooted at Es’kwakweni
after a working stint in South Africa and a spell with second division outfit
Clay Products.
From my generation there was Themba Moyo, also
known as Ncane or Thembani. There was another Thembani who lived on the same street
who was a bit older than Moyo and in typical township style, the elder Thembani
was referred to as Thembani Omkhulu while the younger Thembani became u
Thembani Omncane and over the years or maybe also due to the popularity of the
late former Highlanders defender Fanuel Ncube, who was nicknamed Ncane,
Thembani Omncane eventually became known simply as Ncane.
Our Ncane was a utility player who played as a central
defender for Young Blood juniors where he played alongside the likes of Francis
Chandida and Sizalobuhle Dube but at Magwegwe High School he played as a
central striker while turning out for the Under 16s before being converted into
a right wing back when he graduated into the Under 18s.
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| Toronto Football Club Under 16 |
So talented was Ncane such that each time I
meet former Warriors captain Benjani Mwaruwari, a former teammate at both Young
Blood and Magwegwe, he always asks after him.
Ncane joined the Great Trek to South Africa
soon after finishing his O’ Level and just like a number of that all-conquering
Magwegwe High School team of the early 90s who included Noah and Tymon Vuma, was lost to local
football.
Over the years and with the advent of urban
agriculture, Is’kwakwa began to shrink in size as residents’ fields started
encroaching into the ground but its popularity did not wane.
Its attractiveness stems from the fact that
youngsters can just organise themselves into teams and start playing without
having to first go through the rigours of training and as such, many talented
players shunned organised football where they would not only travel outside
their hood but also have to prove their worth at training.
It was this realisation that good players were
wasting away Es’kwakweni and the situation had become some sort of vicious
cycle where talented footballers would stop playing competitively after picking
up bad habits that we formed what was then known as Pumula East Academy with
Moses (Gwejegweje) Musariri in 2009.
Pumula East Academy juniors minus Musariri
would later morph into Toronto Football Club following the amalgamation of the
academy and Gift ‘Ghetto’ Nkala’s senior team that campaigned in the third
division.
In our first year of campaigning in the now
defunct Ghetto Junior League as Pumula East Academy one of our star players Mncedisi Gumede was chosen
to be part of the national Under 15 Young Warriors squad that represented the
country at the inaugural Youth Olympics in Singapore in 2010.
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| Mncedisi Gumede |
After stints with Highlanders development teams
and the Tsholotsho senior team, Gumede is back with us and is one of the key
members of the squad as we chase promotion into the Zimbabwe Football
Association Southern Region Division One Soccer League.
The city council has since created a proper
pitch next to the Is’kwakwa and our exploits this year have left us on the brink
of winning promotion into the second tier of Zimbabwean football with three
games left in the season but our quest could be derailed by financial
challenges.
Recently, we were bailed out by a well-wisher
who cleared our outstanding affiliation fees to the Zifa Bulawayo Province but we
still have got to clear outstanding referees’ fees to the tune of $635.50. Of
this figure $146.00 is for our remaining two home matches while $489.50 is for
past matches for which we did not pay match officials all their dues.
We do hereby appeal to well - wishers to help
us fund raise so that we can be able to fulfil all our remaining matches.
There are so many products of Is’kwakwa that
are dotted around the globe whose young relatives we are grooming to become
footballers so please share this message until it reaches them and hopefully
they will be touched into contributing towards helping Toronto Football Club
scale great heights.
In the past couple of years we have even had
rival teams helping us out pay affiliation fees and referees and we have also
been kept afloat by the contributions from members of our community whom I will
not name lest I forget someone and they be offended and decide not to assist in
future.
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| Toronto Football Club Under 14 |
I know that when one looks at the figures
mentioned above they seem to be too much but if for instance all my 680 Facebook friends
were to contribute a dollar each then the debt would be cleared leaving a bit
of money to channel towards our age group team teams.
Just think about it….
Through these dollar a month contributions we
can go on to participate in the first division and even beyond.
For contributions/donations contact Ghetto
Nkala on 0772 280 741 or Sakheleni Nxumalo on 0772 322 791. Both numbers are
registered on ecocash. Email sakheleninxumalo@hotmail.com
or nxumalosakheleni@gmail.com
