A 55-year-old referee, Donald Tonga, was allegedly beaten to death by players and supporters during a replayed match at the Andrew Lubusha football tournament yesterday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The incident occurred between 12:05 and 13:30 hours at Mchenga Primary School Grounds in Chief Mafuta\u2019s area, during a game between Mikango United and Leopard United.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eastern Province Police Commanding Officer Robertson Mweemba confirmed the death and identified the victim as Tonga, a resident of Madalistso Farm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Mr Mweemba, the tournament is sponsored by Chipangali MP Andrew Lubusha and features 16 teams competing for a K5,000 prize in a knockout format.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tensions began during an earlier fixture on May 5, when Tonga awarded a penalty to Leopard United while Mikango United led 2-1. The decision sparked confusion and the match was abandoned. Both teams met on May 6 and agreed to replay the game from the start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the first half of the replay, Mikango United players became incensed after Tonga allegedly ignored a foul. They confronted him on the pitch and, joined by supporters, attacked him with fists, kicks, stones, sticks, and a bamboo stick as he tried to escape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Efforts by some fans to intervene failed. Tonga was rushed to Chamasongo Clinic but was pronounced dead on arrival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Police have launched investigations. No arrests had been confirmed at the time of reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A 55-year-old referee, Donald Tonga, was allegedly beaten to death by players and supporters during a replayed match at the Andrew Lubusha football tournament yesterday. The incident occurred between 12:05 and 13:30 hours at Mchenga Primary School Grounds in Chief Mafuta\u2019s area, during a game between Mikango United and Leopard United. Eastern Province Police Commanding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"formats":[],"class_list":["post-118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main-news"],"dsm_author":{"name":"ZingTouch","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1520abd2a899ce9ce64c738c722ec72b4d6830b6a7c494d30177a7a9281b3b92?s=96&d=mm&r=g","archive_link":"http:\/\/kbcfm.co.zm\/index.php\/author\/zingtouch\/","biodata":""},"dsm_categories":[{"term_name":"MAIN NEWS","term_id":5,"term_link":"http:\/\/kbcfm.co.zm\/index.php\/category\/main-news\/"}],"dsm_attachment_categories":[],"dsm_featured_image":{"thumbnail":"http:\/\/kbcfm.co.zm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/FB_IMG_1778231666858-1536x912-1-150x150.jpg","medium":"http:\/\/kbcfm.co.zm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/FB_IMG_1778231666858-1536x912-1-300x178.jpg","medium_large":"http:\/\/kbcfm.co.zm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/FB_IMG_1778231666858-1536x912-1-768x456.jpg","large":"http:\/\/kbcfm.co.zm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/FB_IMG_1778231666858-1536x912-1-1024x608.jpg","1536x1536":"http:\/\/kbcfm.co.zm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/FB_IMG_1778231666858-1536x912-1.jpg","2048x2048":"http:\/\/kbcfm.co.zm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/FB_IMG_1778231666858-1536x912-1.jpg","et-pb-post-main-image":"http:\/\/kbcfm.co.zm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/FB_IMG_1778231666858-1536x912-1-400x250.jpg","et-pb-post-main-image-fullwidth":"http:\/\/kbcfm.co.zm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/FB_IMG_1778231666858-1536x912-1-1080x675.jpg","et-pb-portfolio-image":"http:\/\/kbcfm.co.zm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/FB_IMG_1778231666858-1536x912-1-400x284.jpg","et-pb-portfolio-module-image":"http:\/\/kbcfm.co.zm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/FB_IMG_1778231666858-1536x912-1-510x382.jpg","et-pb-portfolio-image-single":"http:\/\/kbcfm.co.zm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/FB_IMG_1778231666858-1536x912-1-1080x641.jpg","et-pb-gallery-module-image-portrait":"http:\/\/kbcfm.co.zm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/FB_IMG_1778231666858-1536x912-1-400x516.jpg","et-pb-post-main-image-fullwidth-large":"http:\/\/kbcfm.co.zm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/FB_IMG_1778231666858-1536x912-1.jpg","et-pb-image--responsive--desktop":"http:\/\/kbcfm.co.zm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/FB_IMG_1778231666858-1536x912-1-1280x760.jpg","et-pb-image--responsive--tablet":"http:\/\/kbcfm.co.zm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/FB_IMG_1778231666858-1536x912-1-980x582.jpg","et-pb-image--responsive--phone":"http:\/\/kbcfm.co.zm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/FB_IMG_1778231666858-1536x912-1-480x285.jpg","full":"http:\/\/kbcfm.co.zm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/FB_IMG_1778231666858-1536x912-1.jpg"},"dsm_comment_count":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kbcfm.co.zm\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kbcfm.co.zm\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kbcfm.co.zm\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kbcfm.co.zm\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kbcfm.co.zm\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/kbcfm.co.zm\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120,"href":"http:\/\/kbcfm.co.zm\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118\/revisions\/120"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kbcfm.co.zm\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kbcfm.co.zm\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kbcfm.co.zm\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kbcfm.co.zm\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118"},{"taxonomy":"post_format","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kbcfm.co.zm\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/formats?post=118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}