People from all walks of life on Monday thronged Likuni in the outskirts of Lilongwe to pay their last respects to a man who surmounted stumbling blocks to lay women football foundation in Malawi, David Dube.
Football administrators, coaches former and current football players including journalist were all there to witness Dube send off, despite a heavy downpour.
The last mile for David Dube
In her eulogy, Women Football President Sugzo Ngwira described late Dube as a selfless man who was always on time to give advise to the association whenever need be.
“I am failing to find the right vocabulary to describe Mr. Dube. He is the man who went an extra mile to lay women football foundation in the country,” said the emotional Ngwira.
“The women football fraternity has lost an icon. I don’t know if we will be able to find another David Dube. He will greatly be missed.”
Dube, born in 1960 in Zimbabwe to a Malawian mother and South African father turned 61 only six weeks ago, but succumbed to stroke and malaria in the wee hours of Saturday morning.
The girl footballers paying their last respects
The brain behind DD Sunshine, Dube will be fondly remembered for nurturing the talent of the Chawinga sisters, Temwa and Tabitha who are currently playing their professional football in China and Italy respectively.
Dube literally grew the first seeds that led to the birth and blossoming of women football in Malawi.
So passionate was Dube in that every time he saw or heard about a promising young player who would recruit her brought to Lilongwe , keeping her in a girls hostel he was renting.
The girls would go to school in the morning, train after school and play matches at the weekend.
He even organized friendly matches against teams in his country of birth, Zimbabwe and Zimba and soon the popularity of women’s football grew and more teams started to be formed.
But so good was Dube’s DD Sunshine that when Malawi formed its first women’s national team, all his players were in the national team squad and nearly the entire first 11 picked also coming from the team.
Today, Malawi women football is on strong footing and those who know how the journey started credit Dube for the significant pioneering role he played.
