Moffat Mungazi
Ray Bande
Senior Reporter
MUTARE-BASED Castle Lager Premiership outfit, Manica Diamonds, have begun their preseason preparations with a training camp in Beitbridge where four of their new signings are understood to be part of the club’s Class of 2025.
The Gem Boys, who flattered to deceive in the previous seasons after giving so much promise, only to end the season empty-handed, concluded the 2024 Castle Lager Premiership season on fourth position and without a silverware to show for a fortune that their sponsors — Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC) — have been pouring into this project.
This year, the Jairos Tapera-coach team have lured the FC Platinum duo of Lawrence Mhlanga and Ransome Pavari as well as Clive Dzingai from ZPC Kariba.
Manica Diamonds have also signed talented former Dynamos forward, Issa Sadiki as a direct replacement for the departed winger, Micheal Tapera.
Emmanuel Paga, who was with Dynamos last season, has also joined the Gem Boys.
On the other hand, Manica Diamonds have lost an out-of-sorts Tawanda Macheke, towering midfielder, Liberty Chakoroma, as well as talented central defender, Tawanda Chisi.
Their chairman, Masimba Chihowa, said the team is gelling well under the watchful eye of Tapera, and they hope to build a competitive outfit, coming into the 2025 season.
The Chancellor Junior School head said they have managed to retain all the players they had from last season, including want away striker, Fortune Binzi, who appeared to have fallen out of favour with his coach.
In fact, Binzi was visibly being played out of position by Tapera in some lengthy periods of the 2024 season, as the coach appeared to favour a hopeless Macheke.
Chihowa said: “We are going ahead with our preseason preparations, and the team is camping in Beitbridge. I have it on good authority that they are gelling well as a team, and all things being equal, we should be able to have a very competitive outfit by the end of the camp in Beitbridge.
“Yes, we might have missed on some of our targets last season, but we cannot say we performed badly. We only failed to maintain consistency when it mattered most. These are the areas that our able technical department will be working on this season.
“The good thing for us is that we were able to keep most of the players that we had from last season, and that should see us not having problems in striking combinations because we now have players that understand each other and they also understand the culture at the club.”
Meanwhile, Tapera told our sister paper, Sunday News in Bulawayo that their efforts to work on Kudakwashe Mahachi’s levels did not come to fruition in the last Castle Lager Premier Soccer League season.
Fondly known as Nkembe, Mahachi was compelled to retrace to the local league after a short playing stint in Ghana.
“Kuda Mahachi is a very talented boy, and that is why I brought him on board after his time in Ghana. We were gradually introducing him to the Manica Diamonds system.
“We did not want to put him under pressure, but his fitness levels were not up to scratch. He is a very good player; whether he remains at Manica Diamonds or not depends on him. He will need to make a bold decision,” said Tapera.
In the middle of the park, Mahachi was fighting for a starting place with equally gifted Bret Amidu and Binzi, a predatory player who also plays as a gunman. Some reports have linked Nkembe with a move to Highlanders.
The player was last year discarded by Ghanaian football champions Medeama five months into his one-year contract.
With his former club, Chicken Inn, shutting the door in his face, the winger is understood to be in contact with Bosso, a club that has lost the services of their former vice captain, Peter Muduhwa, Marvelous Chigumira, Godfrey Makaruse, and Lynoth Chikuhwa to newboys Scottland FC.
Mahachi, a former Warriors poster boy, previously turned out for Mamelodi Sundowns, Orlando Pirates, Golden Arrows, and Supersport United in South Africa.
