Cycling Federation posts up for grabs

A year after failing to hold an elective general assembly as per their constitutional requirement, Cycling Federation of Malawi (CFM) go to the polls on June 26 at Blantyre Youth Centre (BYC).

CFM general secretary Jimmy Kadewere yesterday said positions of president, vice-president, general secretary, vice-general secretary, treasurer and committee members are up for grabs.

He said interested individuals should apply for the positions of their choice through Malawi National Council of Sports (MNCS) by June 10.

He, however, said only paid-up members will be allowed to vote and if the majority of the 10 affiliated clubs fail to pay their membership fees by the set time frame, the elections will be postponed as was the case last year.

“The mandated four-year tenure of office for the current committee expired in March last year, but we failed to hold the elections then because most of our affiliates did not pay membership fees,” said Kadewere.

“Our constitution clearly states that only paid-up members, which are the affiliated clubs, should take part in the voting process and if only one club pays the fees, it is impossible for elections to take place. We, therefore, ask the clubs to pay their membership fees so that the federation should stop operating illegally.”

He added that candidates, whose clubs have not paid their annual membership fees, will be disqualified from the polls.

Blantyre Cycling Club chairperson Dyton Chimwaza said most clubs do not pay affiliation fees because they do not benefit from their mother body.

“On our part, we paid the membership fees, but we do not see the benefit of doing that because, in turn, we gain nothing from our mother body. Even when athletes are called for national duty, they use club or personal equipment. I do not think most of the clubs will pay the affiliation fees,” Chimwaza said.

But Kadewere argued that they do not provide bikes to athletes on national duty due to limited resources as they get K2 million annual subvention.

The current CFM committee comprises president Andrew Mkwezalamba, vice-president Joseph Galanje, Kadewere, vice-general secretary Peter Kaira, treasurer Peter Klups and committee members Star Phiri and David Kaira. n