Fumu Msiska and his wife, Gladness
* CIFU Group of Companies is a diversified, privately owned investment holding company with significant business interests spanning South Africa and Malawi
* It is owned Fumu and his twin brother, Phaskani, which engages heavily in international entrepreneurship and commerce across multiple sectors in the southern African region
* Fumu and Phaskani are also subject to more scrutiny following revelations of their strong ties with Shepherd Bushiri
By Duncan Mlanjira
Malawian Fumu Msiska, who along with his-South-African-wife-were-arrested-and-granted-bail-over-fraud-allegations-of-that-countrys-CoVID-19-unemployment-insurance-funds, once attempted to buy off the country’s most popular football club, Big Bullets through CIFU Group of Companies Ltd, which he owns alongside his twin brother, Phaskani.
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CIFU Group of Companies — which Fumu founded along with his twin brother, Phaskani, is reportedly a diversified, privately owned investment holding company with significant business interests spanning South Africa and Malawi.
The group is on record of having operations across multiple sectors in the Southern African region, engaging heavily in international entrepreneurship and commerce.
And according to our sources in South Africa, the Msiskas are also subject to more scrutiny following revelations of their strong ties with Shepherd Bushiri, who is wanted by the South African law enforcement to be extradited back to the country to face some alleged criminal charges.
Our sources in South Africa have shared pictures of Fumu in the company of Bushiri at Goshen City project in Mangochi, which are trending on that country’s social media.
The pictures of Fumu in the company of Bushiri at Goshen City project
According to our sources, Fumu and Phaskani are prominent business leaders and entrepreneurs in their host country, who have used their influence to actively advocated for Malawian entrepreneurs in diaspora.
Through their company, they have led delegations seeking assistance from the Malawian government to ease foreign investment and trade barriers for business owners in South Africa.
In August 2023, when former President Lazarus Chakwera toured South Africa to attend the 15th BRICS Summit, he had an audience with Malawian professionals and investors in diaspora led by Fumu Msiska.
However, as Chakwera was about to return back home to Malawi, Bushiri and his wife Mary — who were appearing in court then in South Africa answering their alleged criminal charges — skipped bail and disappeared, prompting the law enforcement in that country to search the Malawian President’s plane suspecting the Bushiris were on aboard.
But by that time, the Bushiris had already arrived in Malawi and the South African law enforcement proceeded to apply for extradition through Interpol, a process which is under legal challenge under Malawian laws.
Our sources indicate that, although Fumu and his wife Galdness handed themselves over to the police after they learnt they were being investigated over the alleged fraud of over R26 million of that country’s CoVID-19 unemployment insurance funds (CIF), their strong ties with Bushiri puts them in position of disrepute.
A picture used by the Sowetan of the wife with Shepherd Bushiri
“Fumu is a good leader of Malawian entrepreneurs here in South Africa and this episode with the Hawks [Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation] has really put him and his businesses under very close scrutiny,” says our source.
According to Monday’s report by the Sowetan online, Hawks’ investigations into the alleged fraud — jointly carried out by the Special Investigating Unit, the UIF and the National Prosecuting Authority’s Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) — started in 2022 after authorities uncovered suspicious claims linked to the company during CoVID-19 relief fund payouts in 2020.
The Hawks is quoted by the Sowetan saying “criminal investigations into the matter are ongoing” and that the AFU froze bank accounts and seized several of the Msiska’s assets.
Hawks is a branch of the South African Police Service which investigates organised crime, economic crime, corruption, and other serious crime referred to it by the President or another division of the police. Bushiri’s case is also under Hawks’ radar.
In the mid-2000s, following the end of Big Bullets sponsorship by former President Bakili Muluzi, CIFU Group of Companies stepped in with intent to invest more in order to buy off its rights but faced stiff opposition from the club’s stakeholders.
According to media reports, highlighted by the Times Group in May 2026; how-big-bullets-ownership-failed-in-2007/, the investment deal was struck in January, 2007 in which CIFU promised to invest K60 million in the team for three years.
CIFU then ‘bought’ the club at K100,000 which then vice-general secretary, Chimwemwe Nyirenda, said was just the value which CIFU used to register the club as a limited company at 100,000 shares, of which Fumu and Phaskani contributed 50,000 shares each.
The registration Certificate of Incorporation prohibited the company from making any invitation to the public to acquire any of its shares or debentures and to formalise the transaction, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the two parties.
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But the marriage between the two was soon to hit the rocks after Bullets executive committee members expressed concerns that the company was yet to sign a contract with the club and that it was keeping details of their MoU under wraps.
The bad blood between the two camps was further exacerbated when Bullets supporters followed with a threat to derail the company’s affairs after CIFU resolved to leave out members of the executive committee from the team’s new administration — accusing them of incompetence and failing to account for some funds.
A court order was obtained, restraining CIFU from dealing with the club in any way and when Phaskani and his staff attempted to address the team’s players, its supporters confronted them ordering them to leave forthwith.
The supporters then marched against the company with a petition to pull out and pave the way for a new sponsor but CIFU responded by indicating that the pullout would only be possible if the new sponsor reimbursed about K5 million then that they had spent on the club.
Fumu and Phaskani
After more of the administrative impasse, CIFU succumbed by discontinuing their business venture due to what it described as “too much non-compliance by the executive committee itself on the provisions stipulated in the memorandum of understanding”.
In South Africa, the two brothers are known as good community leaders as both are active in public service and Malawian diaspora affairs in their hosts country and that they have been involved many fundraising and development activities.
In November, 2025, Phaskani led the organisation of friendly football and netball matches between Malawians and Zambians in Authorised African diaspora as part of Zambia’s Independence Day celebrations.
The matches were won by the Malawian diaspora
According to The Nation, as community representative, Phaskani Msiska praised the spirit of the event, strengthened the bond between Malawian and Zambian diaspora communities, with both sides expressing interest in more joint sporting events.
On a lighter note, is quoted to have joked: “We salute our Zambian friends for offering us a platform to disrupt our generational habit of losing to them. We really needed that commercial break” — a direct reference to the dominance of the Zambian national football team over Malawi in previous encounters.
In 2024, Phaskani was also elected as chair of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) South Africa Wing as convener or chairperson.
