Legendary former Dynamos captain Memory Mucherahowa has heavily criticized the Harare giants’ team manager Richard Chihoro for his ‘anti-juju ritual’ against Premiership returnees Hwange at Babourfields Stadium on Saturday.
During half time, Chihoro performed an alleged anti-juju ritual by sprinkling some unknown substance at the Mpilo End goalpost to ‘unlock the nets’, after DeMbare had failed to break the deadlock in the first half, despite creating a lot of chances.
A towel belonging to Hwange goalkeeper Nedrick Madeya, which he kept behind his goal and believed to have contained black magic, was later grabed by a DeMbare fan who skipped the stadium parameter fence and burnt to ashes.
Dynamos Team Manager Richard Chihoro 'unlocking' the nets against Hwange at Babourfields Stadium. pic.twitter.com/wuU9SyhMf6
— Soccer24 (@Soccer24Zim) March 20, 2023
Dynamos went on to win the game 1-0 courtesy of substitute Tinashe Makanda’s solitary second half strike, but it was Chihoro’s ‘anti-juju’ practise which marred the Glamour Boys’ brilliant start to the season.
Mucherahowa reckons Chihoro’s antics are not expected of a club official, let alone the team manager.
“The team manager cannot be doing that, especially in the eyes of football fans. What picture does it paint,” said Mucherahowa in an exclusive interview with Soccer24 from his base in Slough, United Kingdom.
“By the way, are these people (the Dynamos technical team) traditional healers or sangomas? How did they know that there was ‘juju’ in the Hwange goal?
“Who did they consult to come to the conclusion that there was ‘juju’ on that towel? Did they consult a prophet? It doesn’t make any sense at all.
Mucherahowa reckons such antics are detrimental to a big institution like Dynamos.
“Seeing a team official rush to perform an ‘anti-juju ritual’ is beyond embarrassing. If they were very sure that the towel contained black magic, one of the players was just supposed to kick the towel away, not for a club official to be pictured performing what they are calling anti-juju ritual,” said Mucherahowa.
“It’s very embarrassing for a club like Dynamos to have the reputation of either using juju or believing that it may be used against them, to the point of the team manager draws such attention by doing what he did.
“That is not the football that we know, and that is certainly not the Dynamos we knew. It’s totally embarrassing,” fumed Mucherahowa.
