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Fungai Muderere in Plumtree

RELATIVES and friends of the late coach Rahman Gumbo had every reason to shed a tear and console each other as the hearse carrying his body made a stop at Plumtree Border post yesterday afternoon.

It was a tense moment, signaling how the stone cold atmosphere of death can draw out the painful emotions to the loved ones of the departed.

The Gumbo family were used to saying cheerful good byes to Rahman as he went on his work sojourns to neighbouring Botswana.

This time they stayed for long, waiting for his body to arrive and accompany the remains to his home town of Bulawayo.

That wait was piercing to the soul.

Everyone, even passersby were shaken at the reality of seeing the hearse with Gumbo’s body.

Among the relatives, as one cried, it became contagious.

The soft wailing, tears running down their cheeks and the warm hugs they shared, was enough to prove that Rahman was a family man, and a man of the people so loved and unbelievable that he had passed on.

 

“It’s just unbelievable, so heart breaking. I’m very much devastated because this is a man who gave me great football lessons in the 1990s. It’s really painful,” said a teary Simba Rusike a former AmaZulu, Highlanders, Gaborone United and Thorngrove United striker.

So sombre was the atmosphere and it briefly confused Botswana based ex Highlanders coach Mandla “Lulu” Mpofu.

“I don’t know where to start. What really happened to Rahman? It’s really sad. I’m here to make a closure, my brother is gone. He gave me all the football guidance. I have managed to have another coaching stint in Botswana because of him,” said a dejected Mpofu who was holding his passport and car papers in a panicky mood on a day tears and passionate hugs punctuated the scene at the border town.

In a shiny white Botswana plated hearse, the late Dream Team star, was lying motionless and just like what a steady football player does, it was as if he was coolly “waving” goodbye to his peers and students of the world’s most beautiful game, let alone his wife Virginia.

After a lengthy moment of proving to be brave, Virginia could not help but shed tears as she was comforted by the late Rahman’s siblings that included Norman and Nkosana.

Better known as Sancho in his playing days, Nkosana, the easy going former AmaZulu midfielder, could not help but cry for his departed elder brother.

It was so touching!

Indeed, Dr Rush is no more and it was no wonder that Chicken Inn players, officials and local football enthusiasts took some time off to welcome their football icon at Bulawayo’s Bellevue suburb amid song and dance.

So it sank to ex-Highlanders chairman Kenneth Mhlophe, former club vice chairman Modern Ngwenya and renowned former radio personality Ezra “Tshisa” Sibanda as they all bothered to have a last kiss with the late Njube bred football hero.

The late Gumbo has deservedly been granted a State assisted funeral after he died in neighbouring Botswana last Friday after a short illness.

“His Excellency, the President and First Secretary of Zanu-PF, Cde E. D Mnangagwa has conferred a State Assisted funeral to the late Cde Rahman Allen Thulani Gumbo who died on  10 November 2023. His family can be contacted through our Bulawayo Provincial office. I shall be most grateful if you would make the usual arrangements for his burial and payment of benefits to his family,” wrote

Zanu-PF secretary-general Obert Mpofu in a letter according the State assisted funeral.

Nicknamed Dr Rush, Gumbo was a football icon who is celebrated for his immense contribution to the country’s most followed sport.

He served the nation with distinction both as a player and a coach.

Gumbo is survived by wife Virginia and four children.

He will be buried at Bulawayo’s Lady Stanley Cemetery tomorrow.
— @FungaiMuderere