Why Dynamos players shelved ‘Zora Butter’

By Grace Chingoma

DYNAMOS players staged a protest against their fans at Rufaro last Sunday to register their displeasure over how some of the club’s supporters have turned social media forums into an arena to rubbish their character.

A number of DeMbare supporters’ groupings have emerged on Facebook in the past year with the majority of them administered by some of the clubs well-known supporters. While the social media forums claim to be there to celebrate the DeMbare brand and everything that it represents others have hijacked the forums and turned them into theatres where the characters of the players and their coaching staff are regularly battered by a barrage of insults.

The insults went into overdrive when the Glamour Boys went for a three-game winless streak when they were booted out of the Independence Cup and lost to Monomotapa in a league match. Wierd stories about the players’ lives, including sensational allegations of their alleged horrible drinking habits, began to emerge on these social forums.

What enraged the players is that there appears to be a group of supporters who are close to the team and are now abusing their proximity to the players and their coaches to spread wild allegations about their lifestyle on these social media forums.

Pictures of DeMbare players either in their dressing rooms, on the planes, or in their team bus which regularly appear on these social media forums have given credibility to concerns among the players and their coaches that the moles are very close to them. Reports have indicated that DeMbare players did not perform their “Zora Butter” celebration because of the differences between the club’s management and sponsors Savanna Tobacco over ambush marketing.

The Herald has since established that there was more to the story related to the celebration on Sunday than just a fallout with Savanna. The players tired of the continued blasting from their hard-to-please fans felt it was better to celebrate with their coach and each time the team scored in the 4-1 victory against Black Mambas they would go to Pasuwa.

Even if the players were advised to stop using the Zora Butter celebration indefinitely by the management, they still could have celebrated with fans without performing the popular dance. And after the match the players and the technical team quickly rushed en masse to the dressing room leaving the fans in the cold.

It has emerged that the players felt the fans should also have a taste of their own medicine and felt that it was better to celebrate with their coach, who is also under fire from some members of the executive and some fans who feel he is not the best man for the job at the Harare giants.

A senior player, speaking on condition of anonymity on Sunday evening, said the players feel some of the attacks from the fans are uncalled for. The player added that reports of alcohol abuse were being worsened by the fact that the team doesn’t camp ahead of matches.

“The fans, at times, just exert us with too much pressure. We play with a winning mentality all the time and it is also not easy for us when we lose a match. So we felt its better we do our thing and they also do their thing.

“At times we feel the fans just don’t appreciate. It is becoming too personal with the way these issues of beer and women are being peddled. It is becoming more like stalking and maybe people will realise it when a player is badly attacked by some of these crazy fans.

“Honestly some players drink but they do it in their own spare time. At training, Pasuwa is always telling us that we should be responsible and he hasn’t really had problems with us over beer because he expects any serious player to know what’s best for him.

“But we normally don’t camp for our league matches and it becomes difficult to monitor if some players are getting up to something during those hours,” said the player. The DeMbare fans took to the social media forum on Saturday when The Herald published a story on the lifestyle of chief striker Takesure Chinyama. The forward who has taken the domestic league by storm impressed the fans when he said he is a teetotaler.

And the fans in their comments hailed the giant striker and felt other players ought to emulate Chinyama and also play well.

“To tell the truth I am more passionate about football. I don’t drink, I don’t smoke and I don’t take drugs. I strive to be at the right places with the right people always. That’s what I am. My friends know this. In fact I usually do not hang around with (beer) drinkers because I have had bad experiences with people in the past.

“So if I am not at the stadium training or playing football, or watching other teams play, I will be at home with my family most of the time. I don’t find it boring because I like to spend most of my time with my family, which I love so much,” said Chinyama. Those comments seemed to have torched a storm instead of being taken in their context.