Nation Online

We’re not kids, this is campaign

The K120 million Joyce Banda Foundation Inter-Constituency Football and Netball League which was launched this week has made people that run sports in this country to politically position themselves and justify it as a complementary initiative to the government-sponsored Presidential Initiative on Sports (PIS).

I believe, this is an unnecessary duplication which might have come from JBF being misled by some overzealous characters. As it stands, the new initiative passes for a campaign tool. It bears the President’s name and will be competed for in the constituencies. Of course, the President is committing no crime. After all, football, netball and other disciplines are what most politicians in this country are using to buy votes among the youth in pretext of developing sports. I foresee chaos in the running of the said complementary initiatives—PIS and JBF. Otherwise, my humble view is that those JBF funds could have still benefited Malawians in another campaign strategy. Here we have been cheated, because even the now five-year old PIS and the many MPs’ trophies have little to show in terms of developing sports in this country over the years.

Spare Mtawali, Mabedi the trouble

If the story we heard this week that the interim coaching panel would be paid per game is anything to go by, I am vindicated on my stand that we would do well leaving Ernest Mtawali and Patrick Mabedi alone to continue enjoying their luxury lives in South Africa. I believe, within the country we have enough capable people who can drill the Flames for the remaining World Cup qualifiers and get paid per game, rather than jeorpadise the steady employment of the two. Of course, the final decision is theirs, but the per game arrangement is risky to me.