* Organised football teams all over the world maintain their original name every time they change sponsors
* Sponsor proxy Aubrey Kusakala treated Dedza Dynamos like it belongs to Shepherd Bushiri’s Goshen City brand name
The new Executive Board of Dedza Dynamos has written to Prophet Shepherd Bushiri’s Goshen City complaining that his proxy representative, Aubrey Kusakala, is interfering with the team’s governance.
Kusakala is accused that he is bypassing the legally recognised Board to manage key matchday operations, camping logistics, and team movements directly through the former executive chairman Kampanikiza.
The club thus asks Bushiri to rein in Kusakala for the management to spearhead its institutional commercialisation framework.
Bushiri and Kusakala think they own Dedza Dynamos
In the letter dated November 6, 2026, the team’s executive Board emphasises that they acknowledge and deeply appreciate Goshen City’s monumental sponsorship as the partnership stands out as one of the premier corporate investments within the country’s top flight football league.
“Our core objective as an active, professional board is to safeguard Goshen City’s brand equity, maximise your corporate return on investment, and establish flawless corporate governance structures that shield all associated parties from operational liabilities,” emphasises the Board.
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The club indicates that Goshen City management “recently raised valid and highly critical queries regarding discrepancies within the club’s payroll” and that the current Board took the observations “with the utmost seriousness”.
“To ensure complete transparency, we wish to formally place it on record that these specific discrepancies are legacy anomalies directly inherited last month from the dissolved previous executive committee.
“While such irregularities may have been tolerated as normal practice under the prior administration, they contradict the professional standards of the current Board.”
The Board assures Bushiri that they have “aggressively launched an independent internal financial review to rectify these historical payroll errors and ensure absolute fiscal responsibility going forward”.
And while they are dedicated to resolving the “historical financial issues, the Board thus asks Bushiri to let the club manage its affairs without any interference which Kusakala created as“parallel governance structure”.
For starters, as the Board resolves what it describes as “legacy anomalies”, it must revert to the founder’s original name of Dedza Dynamos and not the Goshen City Dedza Dynamos.
Goshen City are sponsors, a partnership which one day might end, rendering the club to revert to just being registered as Dedza Dynamos.
Before Goshen City, the team adopted Premier Bet Dedza Dynamos and this entails that they will take up the next sponsors’ name, say ‘Duncan Mlanjira Dedza Dynamos’ — what a mouthful.
Organised football teams all over the world, including Africa, maintain their original name every time they change sponsors.
Kaizer Chiefs & Mamelodi Sundowns in South Africa; Zamalek, Al Ahly & Esperance in North Africa; TP Mazembe in DR Congo; Dynamos in Zimbabwe; Young Africans & Simba in Tanzania — as examples maintain their historical names despite having sponsors and regularly changing them.
Kaizer Chiefs’ jersey, Vodafone on chest and Toyota on sleeve
The same with Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea in England, Barcelona, Real Madrid in Spain, Bayern Munich in Germany, Montpellier in France.
Man United jersey
The sponsors brand is emblazoned on the chest or back of the teams’ jerseys, with the league’s logo on the sleeve.
It’s unheard of that a team should always change its name to accommodate a sponsors brand. When negotiating these contracts, club management should not accept to be dictated to in this way.
Nyasa Big Bullets should maintain its name, with FCB just appearing on the jersey, so too Dedza Dynamos and Blue Eagles, which secured sponsorship from Standard Bank.
Silver Strikers was born through sponsorship from the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM), but they have maintained it throughout the years without the Central Bank’s name being mentioned.
It is a standout name that even after the RBM, it shall remain Silver Strikers. The same with Red Lions, the Malawi Defence Force (MDF)-sponsored club.
The rest of the clubs should follow suit that include Mighty Wanderers, who have sponsors Ekhaya Farm Foods and Barbara & Thompson Foundation; Karonga United, Chitipa United, Mighty Tigers, Creck, and the others.
Club management should review the sponsorship when the contract nears its expiry by advertising for bids open to other potential partners.
In the event that the outgoing sponsor has interests to renew, the club should negotiate for better package, to outbid others.
That’s how it works in other countries where football is considered as a serious business. In Malawi, we go for the old and archaic belief that ‘beggars are not choosers’ — thus corporates take advantage of that weakness.
When the Board of Dedza Dynamos is granted its wish to meet with Prophet Bushiri, which they have asked for they must not be cowed away by the billionaire but to stand firm that the club’s governance structure should never be actively bypassed.
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