The 48-hour ultimatum Football Association of Malawi (FAM) president Fleetwood Haiya gave his predecessor Walter Nyamilandu to retract alleged defamatory remarks elapsed on Tuesday, but Nyamilandu’s lawyer David Kanyenda says they are yet to receive court summons. Haiya, through legal firm Blackstone Chambers, on Saturday sought retraction within 48 hours of Nyamilandu’s alleged defamatory statements surrounding the December 2023 FAM elections aired on Face2Face Podcast on January 15 2026. Haiya’s lawyers argue that Nyamilandu’s claims that the election was a “coup-de-tat orchestrated by the previous MCP government”, meant, in the minds of right-thinking members of the society, that Haiya abused public resources to win the FAM presidential election, was undemocratic, corrupt and arranged an unfair cam¬paign.
But in an interview yesterday, Kanyenda said they have not received anything from Haiya’s lawyers upon the expiry of the 48-hour ultimatum. He insisted that they will not bow down to Haiya’s demands. “The ball is in their court to sue.
Otherwise, we are ready to meet them in court. We have opted not to retract or apologise,” said Kanyenda. lawyer Innocent Zimba, who is representing Haiya, yesterday said he would revert on their next step. Haiya won the FAM elections on December 16 2023 after defeating Nyamilandu by 23 votes to 13.
