Malawi’s soccer star, Tabitha Chawinga, is caught up in a legal battle over a problematic house purchase from Centenary Bank (formerly MyBucks) as her lawyer accuses the Catholic Church-owned bank of engaging in organised crime to defraud the Paris Saint German Football Club (PSG FC) player.
Operating under TC11 Investment, Chawinga is said to have paid the now Catholic-owned bank a whopping K101 million, only to discover she had been deceived in a what her lawyer claims to be a well calculated scheme.
Tabitha who plays for PSG on loan from her Chinese club, Wuhan Jianghan University, confirmed to Platform of Investigative Journalism (PIJ Malawi) of her paying the bank millions for what appears to be a fictitious house.
The saga, according to PIJ Malawi, began when she was playing in China. The publication alleges that Malawi gospel musicians Ephraim and William Zonda, known as the Great Angels, approached her to purchase a house in Chitipi, Lilongwe’s outskirts, along the Lilongwe-Mchinji road.
It is reported that the twins facilitated a sale agreement, and Chawinga paid K53 million for the house upfront.
However, the publication reports that the player was later hounded by Centenary Bank demanding K85 million for the same house. After negotiations, Chawinga agreed to pay the bank in ten monthly installments of K8.5 million each, in addition to the K48 million she had already spent on house renovations, reports the Platform for Investigative Journalism (PIJ Malawi).
“The house sold to the nimble-footed forward was purportedly registered under the Title Number Chitipi 7/1/101. Later, MyBucks Banking Corporation, now known as Centenary Bank, revealed they owned the property” reports the publication.
After making her payments, it was later discovered that the Bank had no control over title deed in question.
“A search for the property revealed that the title deeds were bogus, and the Bank had no power over the house” despite Chawinga paying millions for the purchase, reports PIJ Malawi.
Chawinga is now suing a Zacharia Nyirenda and his wife Joyce who initially sold her the ‘house’, Centenary Bank (formerly MyBucks Bank), and the Malawi government, citing Ministry of Lands officials’ involvement in the dubious transaction.
Chawinga’s lawyer, Charles Mhango, argues that Nyirenda, his wife, Joyce, and MyBucks Banking Corporation deliberately misled Chawinga into signing the respective Sale Agreements to swindle her out of her hard-earned money.
“I strongly believe it was a synchronized plot to defraud our client. What happened here is an organized crime, and we have taken the necessary legal action against those involved,” he told PIJ Malawi in an interview.
Chawinga is arguably Africa’s best female footballer and one of the most sought after in the world.
