Malawi Football fraternity has refuted speculations suggesting that their kit manager is the ‘juju’ man on the bench.
Following Malawi’s remarkable progress at the ongoing 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals in Cameroon, some Malawians started accusing the Flames team kit manager Richard Justin Zawazawa of using juju.
After the Flames reached the Round of 16 for the very first time in Malawian history, critics were very convinced that Zawazawa had something to do with that. They described him as a juju person who was behind the team’s success.
However, speaking during an interview, the Football Association of Malawi (FAM) president Walter Nyamilandu has dismissed the rumours.
Nyamilandu said Zawazawa’s role in the team was to look after the national team’s equipment. He bemoaned how people were mocking and insulting Zawazawa.
“It is very unfortunate that some Malawians, especially those on social media, rush in making conclusions about some personalities before getting to the gist of the matter.
Richard Justin looks after all the national teams’ equipment. It is bad to portray him as such. He is a very busy and important man on the team. He is simply a hard worker,” he said.
Zawazawa started working as a cleaner at FAM in 2007 before he was promoted to kit master.
Malawi has been making quite great strides at AFCON. They qualified for the knockout stage for the first time in the country’s history after they beat Zimbabwe 2-1, drew with Senegal 0-0 and lost 0-1 to Guinea.