‘I’m broke’ says soccer star Shingi Kawondera

The former husband of General Constantine Chiwenga’s wife, Shingi Kawondera is now broke. Kawondera says he has nothing to show for nearly 13 seasons in Europe and fathered three kids with three different women.

Among these women is Mary Mubaiwa, who was his wife of four years. Mubaiwa is now married to General Chiwenga, the commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces.

“All along I was just enjoying myself and never made any investments. (Taimbofara zvedu). I hope to start something this year,” he said.

“I am not planning to marry anytime soon because I have failed before and all the women I have lived with say I am arrogant. Maybe the problem is that I am not used to company since I started living alone in Poland at a very young age.”

Kawondera, a self-confessed Mugabe supporter, claims that his playing in the lower rungs of Cyprus football was to give him time to “complete a Political Science degree which he is studying by correspondence with an American college.”

The star hopes to one day play for a local club. “I will be in the country till August so if an offer for a short contract from a local club comes along, I will take it,” he said.

Stories of his love for the fairer sex and night life in Harare’s night spots has been filtering into the ears of many for years.

“Many have the misconception that I misbehave. People should judge me by how I perform on the field and not how I spend my time outside football. That is the problem I had with Charles Mhlauri,” said Kawondera.

Allegations of age-cheating were also thrown at the player after he was accused of using a birth certificate belonging to a woman. “There was a mistake with my birth certificate as it was written female. We corrected the mistake, but they had not changed the birth entry number,” he said.

Kawondera started his career at Wieslaw Grabowisk’s Darryn T in 1998 and between 1999 and 2002 played for Polish club Górnik Zabrze before signing for Cypriot First Division outfit AEP Paphos during the 2005.

In 2005-2006, he played for the Turkish club Gaziantepspor before moving back to South Africa in 2007 where he joined Supersport United.

In July 2007 he signed a two-year contract with the Cypriot club AEK Larnaca. However, in January 2008, he moved to Nea Salamina. Since then he has been wondering from club to club in the lower rungs of Cyprus leagues. NewsDzeZimbabwe