Amavarara exiles aim to annex Cup

A WAVE of optimism has swept the Chris Hani District Municipality in the Eastern Cape thanks to an amateur football club with a peculiar name. Amavarara, who campaign in the ABC Motsepe League, are the pride of the region after their run in the Nedbank Cup that will see them take on Black Leopards at Thohoyandou Stadium tonight in the last 16.

It will be the side’s first match to be broadcast to the rest of the country.

“We owe our name to the ambassadors who fought against the struggle against apartheid, those fighters who went to exile were called amavarara,” the club’s chairman, Lusapho Mzwakali said.

“Just like them, we also have to go out of our area to get what we want. There are no mineral resources in the Chris Hani District and there are no universities. We have to leave our area to get a better life. Just like them, we are ambassadors of our area who go abroad in order to get something.”

Their trip to Thohoyandou will feel like a trip abroad after flying to Johannesburg and then making the long drive to Leopards’ slaughterhouse in Limpopo.

But none of the players would have been drained by that trip, with their spirits high heading into what could be the most important match of some of the players’ lives, as a good showing could lead to a professional contract.

Mzwakali – who runs the team with two other businessmen, Lwandiso Matoti and Simon Hlakaye who joined him in November last year – would be happy with that as the club’s foundation is about changing lives. Mzwakali took over the club in 2012 after it was formed in 1988.

He affiliated it with the Local Football Association in 2014. They worked their way up from the SAB League to the ABC Motsepe League.

“The foundation of this team was about development,” Mzwakali said. “We want to eradicate poverty, drug abuse and influence the moral regeneration of our youth. This could also help minimise violence in the area. It’s more than just about football. Football is a vehicle we are using to bring social change.”

The men who run Amavarara are involved in construction, consultation and engineering. Mzwakali is an accountant by profession, and the further the club has progressed the more he has to work hard to balance the books to fund this dream.

“This is where the other two guys came in,” Mzwakali said.

“It’s now more expensive but also more about building a brand. When I took over the club, I told the coach that he should just teach them football. It was more about learning and providing a safe space. He did that and we started growing by moving higher and higher up.

“We have now started to believe. There are four games between us and glory in the Nedbank Cup and that has made us believe that we can go all the way. We just have to work hard.”