Chawinga sisters manager to seek legal action over abuse
Malawi women’s football star Tabitha Chawinga who is based in France and her US-based sister Temwa have expressed concern with the increase in cyberbullying directed at them.
This follows the recent attack that the two sisters were subjected to on Facebook Page, prompting their manager Tiana Msolomba to disclose that they will take legal action to protect the stars from social media abuse.
“The trend is sadly on the increase and action needs to be taken,” she said.

(L) and Tabitha. | Nation
Among others, Tabitha and Temwa have been abused for not “being feminine. enough”.
In an interview, Tabitha said they are affected by social media abuse.
She said: “It’s sad to see your people attack and bully you so much. They literally spare their time to spread hate. But God has more people for us than against us. So, we stay focused. Me and my sister, therefore, have chosen to focus on our God-given purpose, playing football.
“We refuse to pay attention to people or channels that advocate and spread hate about us or other athletes. We believe their hateful actions are a reflection of themselves and not us.”
A Blantyre-based police officer, Aubrey Singanyama, who is also a football fan, said cyberbullying is criminal and perpetrators risk arrest.
“It is sad to note that people choose to ignore that cyberbullying is a crime because the laws are not enforced enough,” he said.
The Eletronic Transactions and CyberSecurity Act Part X. 86 states that “any person who willfully, maliciously and repeatedly uses electronic communication to harass another person and makes a threat with the intent to instill reasonable fear in that person for his safety or to a member of that person’s immediate family commits an offence of cyber-stalking and shall, upon conviction, be liable to a fine of K1 million and to imprisonment for 12 months”.
In part XI, it states that any person affected by a criminal offence can lodge a complaint to Macra which shall direct a cyber inspector to assess it and proceed with investigations if it is relevant.
In an interview with our sister paper, The Nation in May last year, National Women’s Football Association chairperson Adelaide Migogo was quoted as having said she does not want women’s footballers to be victimised.
“In fact, to protect women’s footballers, Fifa introduced a requirement that every women’s football team should have a safeguarding officer where players are supposed to report any issues of abuse,” she said.