By Elizabeth D.T. Taderera
Popularly known as the Green Machine or Makepekepe, CAPS United F.C is a Zimbabwean football club that was formed in 1973 in Harare. It rose to fame in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The name CAPS stands for Central African Pharmaceutical Society. It is Harare’s second most popular team after their rivals Dynamos F.C. Some of the country’s best players and legends have come out of CAPS like Shaky Tauro and Brenna Msiska. They also have a rivalry with Highlanders and matches between these two have been said to be the Battle of the Cities; their matches have sometimes been associated with violence.
CAPS United wears green and white striped jerseys and white shorts paired with white socks. The chairman is Dr. Lewis Uriri and they are currently under the management of Darlington Dodo (2020). Under the leadership of Steven Kwashi they won the 1996 league championship and then in 2004 Charles Mhlauri took over and won back to back championships.
Makepekepe have won five Zimbabwe Premier Soccer League titles (1979, 1996, 2004,2005 and 2016). They have also won more than 20 domestic cup competitions, with victories in the Castle Cup, the ZIFA cup, the CBZ cup, the BP cup, the Zimbabwe Charity shield and the Zimbabwe Independence trophy. In 2014 they won the Zambezi challenge cup in Malawi.
They have appeared in CAF competitions from the 80s up to 2017 but the furthest they have reached is the quarter-finals.
