Dead soccer fan’s family frustrated

Relatives of football fan Geoffrey Mwale, who died after he was allegedly assaulted by Malawi Defence Force (MDF) soldiers during the violence that erupted at a Super League match between Wizards FC and Red Lions at Kamuzu Stadium, have cried foul after failing to get compensation.

Almost a year after the incident, the victim’s family feels frustrated with the Attorney General’s (AG) delay to handle the case.

According to the deceased’s father, Stanley Mwale, the family sued MDF as the main defendants and Football Association of Malawi (FAM) alongside Super League of Malawi (Sulom) as other defendants in June 2015.

However, the two parties, decided to settle the matter out of court following advice from the family’s lawyer John Gift-Mwakhwawa and the defendant, MDF, represented by Attorney General Kalekeni Kaphale.

“I thought since the Attorney General opted to settle the matter out of court, things could be done faster, but this has not been the case. It is now almost a year since my son died and it pains me that the case is not reaching its conclusion,” Mwale, who is not aware of how much compensation the family would get, said.

When contacted on the progress of the case, both Mwakhwawa and Kaphale refused to comment.

Kaphale said: “If the lawyer for the [Mwale] family does not want to comment on the matter, there is no way I can say anything about the case.”

When The Nation called MDF spokesperson Captain Paul Chiphwanya, he also refused to comment and referred the matter to the MDF secretariat.

But an inside source told The Nation that the case might be sorted out in the next four weeks.

FAM legal adviser Jabbar Alide said yesterday that he was not aware that the local soccer governing body was one of the entities that were sued in the case.

The late Mwale was in a coma for 25 days at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre before his death on June 5 2015.

He became the second soccer fan to lose life to violence at a domestic match within a space of just over a year after Lemiyasi Josita died in similar circumstances during a match between Be Forward Wanderers and Silver Strikers at Balaka Stadium in December 2013.