Eastern Province football teams turn to graveyards for wins
AS PERHAPS one of the few provinces in Zambia without a football team in the prestigious FAZ Super League, teams in the Eastern Province have reportedly turned to graveyards for winning charms.
In a spine-chilling confession by 67-year-old Austine Ziwa and his sidekick Rabson Zulu aged 30 dug up graves to rob the deceased of their bones which they later used to make charms so that some talentless both-left-feet footballers of the East could at least even manage to hit a ‘beamshot’ at the goalposts.
During cross-examination by Chief Madzimawe at his Palace at the weekend, the duo narrated that they had so far provided the portion of human bones to football teams like New Tigers, Kambwata Stars and Thebete Warriors.
However, Chief Madzimawe doubted the duo’s explanation that the charms were for football pointing out that all the teams which they claimed to have provided their concoction were still being whipped like erring children by their rivals.
But perhaps more bizarre in this tale of ‘Evil Grandpa and his Sidekick’ was how they were nabbed leading to their confession.
Facts in this matter are that Ziwa and Zulu were stumbled upon at midnight exhuming late Whiteson Zulu an adult albino at Mona Graveyard who died in 2018 by a fearless cattle owner Azele Moyo, 39 who was looking for his lost cattle in the hills and valleys including the graveyard.
When Moyo heard humming noises, he thought it was his cattle grazing the graveyard but as he got closer to what was supposed to be his ‘cattle’, Ziwa took off in a spirit-filled sprint only a teenager can manage leaving his sidekick battling for pace kilometres behind.
Moyo could not believe the new turbocharged speed of his cattle and he gave chase leaping over mounds of graveyards but all he came close to were the clouds of dust and stone that Ziwa and his accomplice were leaving in their Olympic run.
Breathless and beaten for pace by a magical pensioner, Moyo picked up the evidence left by the midnight ‘cattle’ which included a hoe and a headsock.
It is these artefacts that the village used to identify the culprits leading to their chilling confession.
It is not the first time, Ziwa had been presented before Chief Madzimawe for his “vodoo practice”, as he admitted that he had been brought to the place some time back in connection with enrichment charms he was concocting.
When queried about how chose which graves to exhume, Ziwa told Chief Madzimawe that he was particularly interested in the remains of albinos.
He explained that the previous charms he had provided for the teams were from an albino’s bone he had gotten from Kafue.
Meanwhile, Eastern Province Police Commissioner Geza Lungu said Ziwa and his wingman have been arrested for tresspassing on the graveyard and would appear in Court soon.
©Kalemba