Flames performances at the Kamuzu Stadium have been hor¬rible but sanitation at this sports facility is not any better forcing women to expose their nakedness in front of male spectators during football matches, The Weekend Times can reveal.

However, the Stadium Manager Charles Mhango claims the toilets are usually clean before matches but people delib¬erately mess up the facilities.

But an inspection by The Weekend Times prior to the Chad game revealed that the men's toilets, which do not have running water, were pasted with faeces from the previous week when Malawi faced Nigeria.

"The match official usually inspect the stadium before big games so if the toi¬lets were unusable, he could not have allowed the game to proceed," claimed Mhango.

He also said there was need for awareness on how people can use the facility.

"It is a disgrace that people don't know how to use the facility. The toilets are usually clean in the morning but before the game kicks off, the toilets are already in a mess," he said.

However, the inspection The Week¬end Times carried dispelled Mhango's claims. As early as 10.00am last Saturday, solid human waste from the previous week was all over the toilets for Stand E while the men's toilets for Stand F remained closed, The Weekend Times has pictures.

Near the stinking toilets, there is a food kiosk where fans buy different food¬stuffs and drinks during half-time. Men are usually seen watering the walls of the closed toilets relieving themselves while women and girls cover them¬selves with cloth to urinate.

"We love football but this place is not conducive for women. We cannot use the toilets because they stink and when we want to urinate, we find men to protect us while fellow women cover us up to avoid exposing our bodies to men," said a woman clearly disgusted by the state of the toilets.

A woman who sells maize said there is healthy risk that is why they make sure to put the maize in plastic bags.

"We care about the customers that we serve that is why we do everything we can to keep the maize and other foodstuffs clean.

"But I am appalled to see fellow women bending over there to relieve them¬selves while some unruly men peep to have a full view of women's exposed bodies," said the woman pointing to a place under the stand.

The woman fears if the toilets remained in the state they were, her business would be ruined.

"I have been selling maize here at the stadium since 1994 and I can tell you that I have managed to educate my five children. Now my only worry is that people might shun this food kiosk because of the bad smell coming from the toilets, I will have no place to sell my maize," said the woman who buys raw maize in bulk from Chikwawa.

After the Nigeria game, the government pocketed 25 percent (K1.4 million), the Malawi National Council of Sports got five percent (K287,472) and the Football Association of Malawi got 70 percent (about K4 million).

Kamuzu Stadium is run by the govern¬ment which was supposed to be respon¬sible for sanitation at the stadium.

Some quarters believe the government is failing to run the facility properly and a lot of lapses in the recent times would cause harm to human life.

"There is unused metal all over the sta¬dium and if there were to be chaos, a lot of lives would be endangered. They just removed the poles and dumped them all over the place and people struggle to go to the terraces because the paths were either dug or destroyed when they were renovating the flood¬lights," said a fan at the stadium.

Another fan disputed the manager's claim, saying the toilets have been unclean for several months.

"If you come here to watch a Super League game, all the toilets are closed. They are failing to run this place yet we pay a lot of money to watch the games. The government should do something about it and if indeed Fifa were to in¬spect the place, they would close down this place," said Charles Mughogho who travelled from Zomba to watch the Malawi/Chad game.