Charles Yohane: Ex-Zimbabwe footballer killed in South Africa
Former Zimbabwe player Charles Yohane died in a carjacking incident in South Africa at the age of 48. Yohane was a member of the Warriors’ side that competed in the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time in 2004.
He worked as a football coach and a cab driver in Johannesburg after retiring from playing. His body was discovered on Monday in Soweto, however he is thought to have died on Saturday night.
“He was hijacked, they took his car and shot him in the head,” his brother Lewis told BBC Sport.
Yohane arrived to South Africa from Zimbabwe in 1996 to play for Wits, where he became captain and made a club record 268 games between 1997 and 2006.He eventually became the Wits’ developmental coach, but was fired when the club’s franchise was sold to Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila in 2020.
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Yohane made 23 appearances for Zimbabwe, swiftly establishing himself as the country’s first-choice left-back in 1996, while playing for CAPS United in Harare. Innocent Chikoya, a close friend of Yohane’s, played alongside him at Fire Batteries FC, and the two later went to African Wanderers in South Africa, with Yohane returning to Zimbabwe briefly in 1996 for a stint with Caps United.
“He wasn’t a friend, he was a brother, and we have lost him in bad circumstances,” Chikoya told BBC Sport.
“He was clever, an intelligent footballer, he had ways of getting things done. He was a leader, disciplined and dedicated. I will be collecting his body from the funeral parlour on Thursday and will be taking him home.”
Another South Africa-based Zimbabwean, Edelbert Dinha, was in the Zimbabwe squad at the 2006 Nations Cup and was close to Yohane.
“We tried calling him from Saturday up to Monday, and we couldn’t reach him,” Dinha told BBC Sport.
“Then I went to the police station. Charles was a quiet person, always smiling, he never argued with anyone. He was coaching Leruma United FC in the ABC Motsepe League.”
Source: BBC Sports
Abeeb Lekan Sodiq is a Managing Editor & Writer at theafricandream.net. He is as well a Graphics Designer and also known as Arakunrin Lekan.
