Hunters

Rudhaka Stadium had hosted political rallies and the odd football fixture for years before a group of tobacco farm workers in Marondera turned their social kickabout into something registered. That was in March 2020, and the outfit went straight into ZIFA's Mashonaland East Division 2: The Clever Boys.

Two years in Division 2 were enough to earn promotion to the Eastern Region Soccer League in 2022, and five seasons after that first registration, Hunters finished top of the table and went up again — this time to the Premier Soccer League, a first taste of the top flight starting in 2026. Along the way they put out a marker that mattered more than the table position: a penalty-shootout win over Dynamos in the Chibuku Super Cup.

Names from that promotion run travel with the story — Kanisiyo Marimazhira and Denzel Murape among them. Off the pitch, the club spent late 2025 and early 2026 batting down talk that it had been bought outright, and that Scott Sakupwanya's involvement did not amount to ownership of the whole.

None of that has softened the rivalry with FC Wangu Mazodze. The Masvingo club has stood on the other side of Hunters in the Eastern Region Soccer League's promotion fights often enough that their meetings are talked about locally, two sides scrapping for the same door out of the region.