HARARE – Norman Mapeza has stepped into the eye of a glittering storm.
On Thursday, the revered 53-year-old tactician signed a two-year deal to lead newly crowned Premier Soccer League champions Scottland FC, a club whose lofty ambitions are matched only by the deep pockets bankrolling them.
For Mapeza, a two-time league champion and serial cup winner during a decade of dominance with FC Platinum, this is both a return to the big stage and a test unlike any he has faced before.
He replaces Tonderai Ndiraya, unceremoniously let go despite delivering the championship at the first attempt. At Scottland, success is a requirement, not a reward.
The contract was inked at the plush offices of Scottland’s chief sponsor Wicknell Chivayo, the flamboyant businessman whose influence has become inseparable from the club’s meteoric rise. Club owner Scott Sakupwanya, himself no stranger to extravagant displays of wealth, looked on as his latest high-profile acquisition posed for pictures.
Mapeza has been given two seasons to mould a side capable of conquering Africa in the CAF Champions League – a mandate that will come with both resources and unforgiving scrutiny. Insiders say he has been promised a free hand in the transfer market and a salary package befitting the club’s continental ambitions.
Chivayo, the CEO of energy firm Intratrek Zimbabwe, poured US$1 million into Scottland’s maiden Premier League campaign, the same figure he used to bankroll Highlanders. The club is yet to confirm his total financial commitment for 2026, but his role in securing Mapeza leaves little doubt: the money tap is staying open.
Not many Zimbabwean football fans had the car-loving, headline-making Chivayo pencilled in as the country’s biggest football benefactor. Those with longer memories, however, will recall his US$1 million sponsorship of the national team back in 2015 – the first public glimpse of a man who now wields financial influence unmatched in local sport.
Today, at 45, Chivayo cuts a paradoxical figure: hefty in build but soft-spoken; evasive about how he amassed his fortune but happy to document his lavish spending online. His social media pages read like a billionaire’s diary – private jets, luxury cars, multimillion-dollar homes and a constant stream of jaw-dropping donations.
On his birthday, last week, he made donations totalling a staggering $5,3 million. Unhappy with online questions over a bus donation to his former school, Dudley Hall, he went back with $1 million for the school to build two dormitories.
Yet the path here was anything but smooth. His US$273 million Gwanda solar project became mired in controversy in 2015, triggering a bitter fallout with ZESA, criminal charges and the perception that he was a casualty of the political transition following Robert Mugabe’s ouster in 2017.
Courts later cleared him and affirmed the validity of his ZESA contract which the power utility must see through or pay damages of $25 million, a ruling that blew wind into his sails – and shortly after, he had found a new ally in new president Emmerson Mnangagwa.
What followed was a bewildering accumulation of wealth and influence: A US$7 million mansion in Harare’s exclusive Gletwyn neighbourhood. Four customised Rolls Royces. A US$12.5 million Bombardier Challenger 300 jet for continental hops. And now, aviation insiders say, a deal for a US$42 million Gulfstream G550 – his most extravagant acquisition yet.
When it’s not hauling Johanne Masowe congregants to surprise holiday getaways, the Bombardier serves as Chivayo’s personal passport to Africa’s power corridors, revealing a staggering roster of friends in high office – presidents among them.
This year, images of Chivayo shaking hands with some of the continent’s most powerful figures have circulated widely — from Kenya’s William Ruto and Tanzania’s Samia Suluhu to Nigeria’s Bola Tinubu, Malawi’s Peter Mutharika, Zambia’s Hakainde Hichilema and Mozambique’s Daniel Chapo. Officialdom has remained silent about the substance of the talks, but Chivayo has teased discussions around renewable energy projects.
