Bullets officials tangle in defamation case

Conflicts are not yet over in the Big Bullets team. This time around head of marketing Dan Mbebuwa has threatened to sue vice-chairperson Titha Mandiza for defamation.
The two had been peacefully working together at Bullets FC until recently when they joined the rival factions of the team’s split executive committee.
Mbebuwa belongs to a faction loyal to former chairperson Kondi Msungama who snubbed recent Bullets’ extraordinary general meeting (EGM), which Mandiza called when she was the first vice-general secretary of the team.

Then, Msungama argued that they could not attend the meeting on security grounds and that the EGM was constitutionally null and void because it was not called for by the general secretary Harold Fote.
This comes after Mandiza reported Mbebuwa to Ndirande Police Station on Tuesday over a case in which he was accused of inciting wife of the team’s senior executive committee member (name withheld) to beat Mandiza on claims that she is going out with her husband.
Mbebuwa said although Bullets vice-chairperson has now opted to move the case out of police hands, he will still file a case against her because he feels the “allegations were serious considering that I will be held responsible for any bodily harm that might occur to Mandiza.”

But Mandiza, who neither denied nor accepted that she reported Mbebuwa to police over the allegations when The Nation asked her yesterday, described Mbebuwa’s threats as sheer propaganda.
“That is cheap propaganda. Ndizopanda ntchito zimenezo [That is baseless],” said Mandiza before her mobile phone went offline.
Blantyre Police Station spokesperson Elizabeth Divala confirmed that Mbebuwa was summoned by the Ndirande Police Sub-Station after Mandiza reported him to Ndirande over the matter.
Said Mbebuwa: “She made a serious allegation that cannot die down without undergoing full and proper court proceeding. It might seem as a simple matter now but if something happens to her [Mandiza] from now onwards, I will be held accountable and I might end up in jail. Therefore, she has to prove her allegations in the court of law.”