Terrence Dzvukamanja

The Bidvest Wits attacker shares a personal story of his difficult start off the pitch in South Africa, yet is fully focused on helping his new club achieve championship glory.

After failing to defend the league title they won in the 2016/17 season, Bidvest Wits wasted no time in their search to bolster their attack by scouting across the border to sign striker Terrence Dzvukamanja from Zimbabwe. And the 24-year-old seems to be just what the club needed as Wits are back in contention for championship honours once again. KICK OFF’s Zola Doda maps out the player’s rise to stardom.

Zimbabwean international Terrence Dzvukamanja was signed by Bidvest Wits at the beginning of the season to beef up the team’s attack following a disappointing season last year. But instead of worrying about beating defenders and scoring goals on the field of play, the player’s first task in South Africa was to fend off three knife-wielding criminals in the busy streets of Johannesburg who were attempting to rob his belongings. A week after signing for The Clever Boys, Dzvukamanja decided to take a walk on the Jozi streets after training as he idly strolled from one shop to another. Yet the 24-year-old was unaware that he was being followed, and just before he took a taxi home, he found himself starring at a knife blade in broad daylight. “We may have big problems in Zimbabwe with hunger and all that, but there are lots of people who want to stay there because in South Africa you can’t move freely. Here, they can rob or even shoot you,” Dzvukamanja says following his hair-raising ordeal. “I won’t say I got robbed, but three guys came to me and asked me to give them everything I had. I was scared. One guy put his hand inside my pocket and another was carrying a knife. It felt like they knew me because when I went to the mall they were following me. If I went to one shop, they would follow me. I said to myself, ‘Let me go and take an Uber so I can go home’, and that was when they came straight to me. But fortunately, I had nothing on me and they couldn’t take anything. My wallet was also at home and I only paid the Uber driver when I reached my place.” The Wits striker however put the

traumatic experience behind him ahead of the start of the new season. During the first match of the campaign, it was the attacker’s turn to pick-pocket defenders as Wits blasted hoodoo team Free State Stars 3-0. During the second match against Kaizer Chiefs, the Zimbabwean international took his performance up a few notches as he grabbed both a goal and an assist in his side’s 3-1 win over Amakhosi. “The start was good and I’ve settled in well at the club and the new league,” the forward says. “Everything happened so quickly because I came from a much smaller league compared to this one. I’m getting the grip of the league slowly but surely. Everything is okay, but the pace is obviously a little quicker compared to where I came from. “The biggest advantage of playing in South Africa is that in Zimbabwe, things are not financially good, so when you come to play in the PSL you can do so much in terms of looking after your family. There is no money in Zimbabwe and the facilities are not good, but here it’s different. “Some teams are struggling and players don’t get paid. But fortunately for me, the team I was playing for was paying me on time and were good to me. Although the money was not much, I can’t say I was struggling so I was fine.”

All in the family

Raised in a family with four brothers, Dzvukamanja fell in love with the game of football at a very young age. His father was a well-known amateur player while his older brother Carlington is a referee in the Zimbabwe First Division. “We are all crazy about football,” Dzvukamanja says. “In fact, one of my four brothers used to play for Dynamos and Highlands in the Zimbabwean Premier Division, but unfortunately he had to leave football and work as a policeman because of financial

reasons. Most people in Zimbabwe retire from football very early because they believe 9am-5pm work is better than suffering in football for nothing. People have families to look after. I’m the only one in my family who is still playing. When my brother who is now a policeman was playing, they were earning nothing, so he couldn’t watch his family suffer while knowing he could earn a living by working.” Dzvukamanja himself started honing his football skills as a youngster in his early years at school and continued playing the game right through high school. Thereafter he joined Ngezi Platinum, who were then playing in the First Division, in 2007 before helping the team gain promotion to the Premier Division in 2013, when the striker truly started making a name for himself. Last season, his eight goals for the club earned him a national team call-up for the Cosafa Castle Cup played in Polokwane, which was just before Wits sent scouts to Zimbabwe to watch the player more closely. “Wits sent their scouts to come and watch me play,” the player recalls. “They were looking for attacking players and my agent [Gibson Mahachi] told me that Wits were coming to watch me play because they were looking for attacking players. I didn’t really think much of it because it was normal for me that there were scouts watching in every match we played – I just wanted to play my football. Just because there were scouts didn’t mean I had to change the way I played. “Two days after watching me, my agent told me that I was going to Wits for trials.” The 24-year-old says despite the expectations, he didn’t feel any pressure. “I couldn’t be nervous because this is my job,” he says. “At the time I didn’t know anything about Wits – I was following the PSL and watching matches in general, but I didn’t know the specifics about each club. But when I arrived, I was treated very well.”

Home away from home

Following his move to the Students, Dzvukamanja joined a large contingent of Zimbabwean players plying their trade in South Africa, with the likes of Willard Katsande, Cuthbert Malajila, Tendai Ndoro and Khama Billiat already household names following in the footsteps of Wilfred Mugeyi and Knowledge Musona. Dzvukamanja says he is happy with the presence of his compatriots in the PSL while stating that the difficult economic situation in his country could be the main reason why so many have crossed the southern border. “It’s nice to come to South Africa and see so many Zimbabweans,” he says. “But people must understand that most players come here because things are not easy back home. Players get paid $500 per month on average, which is really bad because you can’t do anything in Zimbabwe with that kind of money. You have to pay water and electricity bills. It’s hard. “It’s very expensive in Zimbabwe: if you earn $500 per month there is nothing you can do. You can’t even find petrol – if you want to fill up your car, you have to get fuel on the black market because in most places it’s either not available or expensive.

It’s hard to even have US Dollars. It’s very difficult because you have to look after your family.” The player adds that his focus right now is to impress his new boss Gavin Hunt while trying to help the team win the league. “Gavin Hunt is great coach; some people say he is too harsh, but the truth is he is not,” Dzvukamanja says. “He wants players to work hard and go the extra mile. He doesn’t want players to relax, thinking they have everything. He is a good motivator and gives me a lot of confidence. I can’t just say I have arrived and can then relax – he tells us to put extra effort in everything. If he doesn’t do that, people will relax.” With Wits well in the title race again, Dzvukamanja highlights what his side needs to do in order to be in with a shout at championship glory while noting who their fiercest competitors are. “Now we have to win every home match to stand a good chance of winning the league,” he says. “The so-called small teams are fighting relegation and it’s hard to beat them. Away from home we have to win or draw, but when we play at home we have to win. “Sundowns are in the race, they are a good and strong team and we can’t look down on them. You also have a team like Kaizer Chiefs that is a good and wellorganised team. When we played them recently we were winning but then relaxed, so they punished us.”