Eddie Chikamhi
Senior Sports Reporter
GIANTS Dynamos and Highlanders are set to clash twice in just over a month as they have been shortlisted to compete in the 2024 President’s Independence Trophy in Manicaland.
The football match, pitting the country’s two biggest clubs, is expected to put the icing on the festivities to be held on April 18.
Manica Diamonds, from the hosting province, and Simba Bhora of Mashonaland Central, who hosted the previous anniversary in 2023, are both part of the festivities.
They are billed to entertain the crowds after the annual children’s party that precedes the main Independence Day celebrations.
The annual Uhuru commemorations are set to be held outside Harare and Bulawayo for the second year in a row after cabinet announced that the celebrations will be hosted in Murambinda.
This is in line with the Second Republic’s drive towards the promotion of national unity, devolution and decentralisation.
The previous celebrations were held in Mt Darwin.
“Cabinet considered and approved the Memorandum on the update on preparations for the 2024 Independence Anniversary and children’s party celebrations, which was presented by Hon. Vice President KCD Mohadi as the chairman of the Cabinet Committee on State Occasions and National Monuments,” the Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Dr Jenfan Muswere, said when addressing journalists during a post-Cabinet media briefing in Harare on Tuesday.
“The nation is informed that the teams competing for the President’s Independence Trophy will be Highlanders and Dynamos Football Clubs, and that going forward, a team from the hosting province should compete with a team from the previous hosting province, with Manica Diamonds Football Club from Manicaland Province playing Simba Bhora Football Club from Mashonaland Central Province after the children’s party.”
Defending champions Highlanders will have an opportunity to equal DeMbare as the most successful team in this invitational tournament.